UC-NRLF 


B    4 


14?  mfi 


The  Philosophy  of 
Self-Help 

An  Application  of  Practical  Psychology  to 
Daily  Life 

By 

Stanton  Davis  Kirkham 

Author  of  "The   Ministry  of  Beauty,"    *« Where  Dwells  the 
Soul  Serene,'*  '*In  the  Open,"  etc. 


Cod  helps  them  that  help  themseiret 


G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons 

New  York   and   London 

dbe    IKniclierbocftet    pcesd 

1912 


B 


EWJC. 
PSYCH.    ^. 
LIBRA!* /^ 


Copyright,  1909 

BY 

STANTON  DAVIS  KIRKHAM 


tCbe  ItnfcHcrboclict  tteu,  "ttew  lt?«r» 


PREFACE 

OOME  of  the  ideas  which  iinderlie  mental 
^  therapeutics  have  become  permanent 
constituents  of  modem  thought,  as  recently 
discovered  chemical  elements  are  permanent 
factors  in  chemical  science.  I  purpose  here  to 
give  an  outline  of  these  thought  elements  of 
metaphysics  and  psychology,  to  systematize 
their  essential  principles  and  to  show  their 
practical  bearing  upon  the  art  of  living,  of 
mind  and  character  building,  whereby  the 
individual,  through  recognition  and  applica- 
tion, may  develop  for  himself  a  more  rounded 
character,  a  more  efficient  mind,  a  healthier 
body,  and  hence  come  to  live  a  more  effective, 
a  more  beautiful,  and  a  happier  life.  This  he 
will  do  for  himself  in  the  ratio  that  he  first 
perceives  and  then  applies  the  truth.  It 
is,  therefore,  with  the  paramount  desire  of 
helping  others  to  help  themselves  that  this 
book  is  written. 


S.  D.  K. 


iU 


308483 


CONTENTS 


Foreword 


PAGB 
1 


PART  I— FIRST  PRINCIPLES 


I — Metaphysics       .         .         .         .         . 

13 

II— God 

27 

Ill— The  Soul             .... 

35 

IV — The  Personal  Self 

42 

V — Religion   ..... 

51 

VI — Ethics 

59 

PART  II— PRACTICAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

I — Thought  and  the  Brain     . 

73 

II — Thought  and  the  Nervous  System 

.       87 

III— Habit 

99 

y.  IV— Will 

106 

V — Attention          .... 

.      113 

VI — Imagination       .... 

120 

VII — Emotion    ..... 

.      128 

VIII— Belief 

.      135 

vi                         Contents 

IX — The  World-thought 

PAGB 

.      145 

X — The  Subconscious 

.     154 

'^  XI — Suggestion         .         ,         .         , 

.      163 

^XII — Auto-suggestion 

.      171 

/c  XIII-^Faith         .... 

.      180 

PART  III— PHILOSOPHY  OF  LIFE 


I — Character 

.     189 

II — Ideals 

.     198 

III — The  Inner  Life 

206 

IV— Poise 

.     214 

V — Freedom    . 

222 

VI — Power 

.     230 

VII— Health      . 

•     237 

VIII— Disease      . 

245 

/.  IX — Mental  Healing 

.     254 

X — Conclusion 

. 

262 

All  that  we  are  is  the  result  of  what  we  have  thought: 
it  is  founded  on  our  thoughts,  it  is  made  up  of  our  thoughts. 
If  a  man  speaks  or  acts  with  an  evil  thought,  pain  follows 
him,  as  the  wheel  follows  the  foot  of  him  who  draws  the 
carriage. 

All  that  we  are  is  the  result  of  what  we  have  thought: 
it  is  founded  on  our  thoughts,  it  is  made  up  of  our  thoughts. 
If  a  man  speaks  or  acts  a  pure  thought,  happiness  follows 
him,  like  a  shadow  that  never  leaves  him. 

Whatever  a  hater  may  do  to  a  hater,  or  an  enemy  to  an 
enemy,  a  wrongly-directed  mind  will  do  us  greater  mischief. 

Not  a  mother,  not  a  father  will  do  so  much,  nor  any  other 
relative;  a  well-directed  mind  will  do  us  greater  service. 

Let  the  wise  man  guard  his  thoughts,  for  they  are  difficult 
to  perceive,  very  artful,  and  they  rush  wherever  they  list: 
thoughts  well  guarded  bring  happiness. 

The  Dhammapada. 


FOREWORD 

SOME  fifty  years  ago,  Quimby  affirmed 
that  disease  was  a  false  belief  outwardly 
picturing  itself  in  the  body,  and  that  a  cure 
would  be  effected  by  substituting  in  the  mind 
true  ideas  for  false  ones.  It  is  probable  that 
this  was  the  first  attempt  in  recent  times  at  a 
practical  application  of  the  forces  of  the  mind 
to  the  healing  of  the  body  upon  the  basis  that 
physical  ailments  are  the  result  of  wrong- 
thinking  or  moral  defection.  A  cure,  then, 
was  at  the  same  time  a  moral  regeneration, 
or  at  least  a  mental  stimulus  to  right  think- 
ing: in  fact  this  was  the  cure, — the  physical 
benefits  followed  as  a  natural  result. 

Fifty  years  of  mental  healing  in  one  phase 
or  another  have  amply  demonstrated  that 
there  was  some  truth — if  not  all  of  the  truth — 
in  Quimby 's  assertion.  The  means  he  em- 
ployed, consciously  or  unconsciously,  was  the 
power  of  Suggestion :  not  random  suggestion, 
but  the  suggestion  of  truth,  of  metaphysical, 


2  Foiev/ord 

ethical,  and  spiritual  principles  to  the  mind 
whose  disorder  was  revealed  in  the  bodily  dis- 
turbance. The  power  of  suggestion  is  to-day 
generally  recognised.  Aside  from  the  schools 
of  mental  healing,  it  has  been  employed  in  one 
form  or  another,  usually  as  hypnotic  sug- 
gestion, notably  in  Europe  by  Charcot  and 
Bemheim  and  in  America  by  Dr.  Mason  and 
others. 

Whether  employed  in  hypnosis  or  in  normal 
states,  suggestion  is  suggestion,  and  it  is 
that  which  accomplishes  the  work.  While 
it  is  quite  possible  that  in  some  cases  it 
may  be  more  effective  during  hypnosis,  and 
Dr.  Mason's  experiments  would  seem  to 
indicate  this,  hypnotism  is  no  more  to  be 
lightly  used  than  are  anaesthetics,  and  only 
by  very  responsible  persons.  In  the  hands 
of  the  irresponsible  it  is  a  menace.  The 
control  of  another's  will  is  to  be  deprecated 
on  general  principles.  A  consideration  of 
hypnotism  does  not  come  within  the  scope 
of  the  present  work  wherein  we  shall  confine 
ourselves  to  normal  suggestion  which  from 
one  source  or  another,  consciously  or  uncon- 
sciously, is  persistently  playing  upon  every 
mind.  When  this  mental  force  is  systemat- 
ically controlled  and  directed  upon  principles 


Foreword  3 

— upon  metaphysical  and  spiritual  truths — 
the  mind  is  strengthened,  character  developed, 
and  bodily  conditions  improved  inconsequence. 
Effective  mental  action  of  this  kind  implies 
not  alone  will  and  intelligence  to  direct  the 
thought,  but  first  a  perception  of  truth,  and 
understanding  of  principles  upon  which  to 
direct  it.  _^ 

Auto-suggestion  is,  therefore,  the  means  of  ' 
self-help  with  which  we  are  here  concerned: 
auto-suggestion  with  a  view,  that  is,  to 
mental  control  and  development  and  a 
strengthening  of  the  will,  the  results  of  which 
must  become  evident  both  in  character  and  1 
health. 

The  mind,  constantly  active,  is  generating 
force,  which  uncontrolled  or  misdirected  works 
harm,  as  readily  and  as  obviously  as  any  other 
force  ignorantly  handled.  Systematically  and 
wisely  directed,  it  is  a  power  for  good  at  the 
disposal  of  every  man,  by  which  he  may 
increase  his  efficiency  and  his  happiness 
and  may  assist  others  to  do  so  for  themselves. 
The  working  of  the  mind,  the  action  of 
suggestion,  comes  wholly  within  the  province 
of  Psychology.  That  body  of  truth,  however, 
upon  which  it  is  profitable  to  direct  the  mind 
which  we  must  have  as  the  subject  of  our 


4  Foreword 

thinking — ^philosophical  religions,  ethical — is 
but  that  ancient  wisdom  scattered  through  the 
sacred  books  of  the  world  and  nowhere  more 
in  evidence  than  in  the  Bible.  Consonant 
with  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  it  is  often  at 
variance  with  the  tenets  of  Theology. 

In  this  book,  we  shall,  therefore,  first 
briefly  review  this  body  of  truth — the  normal 
field  of  the  mind's  activity.  We  shall  then 
consider  more  at  length  the  nature  and 
activity  of  the  mind  itself  and  its  relation 
to  the  body;  and  we  shall  conclude  with  such 
logical  deductions  and  inferences  as  may  be 
drawn,  and  such  practical  suggestions  as  may 
occur,  with  reference  to  mind  building  and 
character  forming,  through  an  application  of 
the  principles  discussed. 

In  this  connection  it  would  be  well  to 
emphasise,  at  the  outset,  the  important  truth 
that  all  we  know  is  necessarily  through  our 
minds;  sensation,  not  less  than  perception  and 
conception,  is  mental.  All  depends,  therefore, 
on  the  quality  and  fitness  of  the  mind  we 
possess.  By  its  means,  as  through  a  glass, 
we  take  cognisance  of  the  world  and  of  life. 
If  the  glass  is  out  of  focus  we  see  a  distorted 
image.  Hence  the  prime  necessity  of  wise  and 
systematic  thought-control   and  direction  in 


Foreword  5 

accordance  with  true  ideals  of  life  and  of 
character.  Through  this  agency  we  replace 
error  in  the  mind  with  truth,  discord  with 
harmony,  and  weak  and  sickly  ideas  with 
strong  and  wholesome  ones. 

The  influence  of  the  mind  upon  the  body 
is  to-day  more  fully  recognised  than  the  reac- 
tion of  the  quality  of  thought  upon  the  mind 
itself.  We  are  now  inquiring  how  and  why 
the  mind  effects  the  body.  The  consideration 
of  its  modus  operandi  belongs  to  Psychology 
and  will  in  time  be  incorporated  in  that  ex- 
panding science.  Suggestion,  telepathy,  the 
sub-conscious,  are  now  considered  under  the 
caption  of  the  ''New  Psychology."  Properly 
there  is  no  new  psychology;  Psychology  is 
merely,  like  other  sciences,  in  process  of 
development.  We  do  not  speak  of  a  New 
Chemistry  and  a  New  Physics  because  new  ele- 
ments have  been  discovered  and  new  theories 
accepted.  Yet  this  would  be  quite  as  correct 
as  to  speak  of  a  New  Psychology.  New  lands 
and  stars  have  been  discovered,  and,  from 
time  to  time,  errors  are  corrected  in  the  re- 
sults of  former  observations.  So  in  psychology 
unknown  fields  of  mental  action  are  being 
explored  and  relations  established,  and  it 
would  be  as  absurd  for  psychologists  to  ignore 


6  Foreword 

these,  as  for  geographers  to  treat  of  the  world 
as  the  Phoenecians  knew  it.  While  new  lands 
are  always  not  the  discovery  of  geographers  or 
of  savants,  they  none  the  less  pertain  to 
Geography  and  must  be  shown  on  the  latest 
maps,  provided  their  existence  has  been 
verified  and  is  not  merely  a  sailor's  yam. 
Discoveries  in  the  field  of  psychology  have  not 
all  been  made  by  Professors  of  Psychology, 
but  they  must  be  recognised  by  them,  where- 
ever  bonafide,  and  must  be  incorporated  in 
that  science. 

Mental  healing  is  far  from  lying  wholly  with- 
in the  domain  of  Psychology.  It  rests  on  the 
foundation  of  metaphysics  and  of  ethics, 
as  the  working  of  a  machine  depends  on 
fundamental  and  cosmic  laws  relating  to 
matter  and  force.  As  to  what  are  true  con- 
cepts and  what  are  not,  it  is  not  for  Psychology 
to  decide  and  we  must  invoke,  not  Metaphysics 
alone,  but  Ethics  and  Philosophy.  If  we 
are  to  help  ourselves,  or  others,  it  must  be  in 
accordance  with  true  ideals.  We  must  know 
at  least  cardinal  facts  of  life,  and  what  is 
more,  be  able  to  distinguish  fact  from  ap- 
pearance, truth  from  error. 

While  it  is  advisable  to  think  truly  and 


Foreword  7 

to  be  just  and  kind  because  of  mental  and 
physical  reactions,  the  ground  of  such  thought 
and  conduct  is  not  mere  expediency,  but  the 
love  of  righteousness  and  the  love  of  truth, 
the  basis  of  both  religion  and  philosophy. 

It  is  not  the  aim  of  the  present  work  to  be 
in  any  sense  polemical.  It  rests  on  truths 
now  as  generally  admitted  by  idealists  as  they 
are  denied  with  vehemence  by  those  still 
claiming  to  be  materialists. 

From  a  religious  standpoint,  it  will  appear 
unorthodox.  The  advanced  thinker  may  find 
its  point  of  view  congenial ;  the  ultraconserva- 
tive  will  take  exception.  No  attempt  will  be 
made  to  reconcile  divergent  opinions,  but  the 
sole  consideration  will  be  to  state  the  truth — 
and  that  with  due  tolerance  of  the  opinions 
of  others.  This  is  undertaken  in  the  interest 
of  no  Sect,  School,  or  Society  whatsoever, 
but  wholly  in  the  interest  of  the  truth  itself, 
and  with  the  desire  of  helping  others  to  help 
themselves  through  a  clearer  perception  of 
spiritual  facts,  a  better  understanding  of 
themselves  and  the  application  of  a  simple 
and  practical  psychology  to  everyday  life.  It 
is  proposed  to  do  this  in  as  direct,  logical,  and 
systematic  manner  as  possible — to  present  in 


8  Foreword 

fact  an  outline,  an  elementary  and  practical 
treatise  on  the  philosophy  and  psychology  of 
daily  life. 

The  philosophy  which  underlies  mental 
healing,  while  not  well-defined,  nor  as  yet 
ever  systematically  enunciated,  is  perhaps 
on  the  whole,  the  most  sane  and  the  most 
practical  of  modem  times.  In  most  books 
on  the  subject  the  words  spirit,  soul,  and 
mind  are  used  indiscriminately  to  the  con- 
fusion of  the  reader.  They  are  not  properly 
synonymous  and  they  will  here  be  clearly 
distinguished. 

There  is  nothing  new  in  this  philosophy; 
it  does,  however,  represent  a  great  develop- 
ment in  practical  psychology  and  it  is  a  curious 
fact  that  it  has  done  more  to  advance  that 
subject  in  the  estimation  of  mankind  than 
the  most  distinguished  men  in  that  science 
have  ever  been  able  to  do.  Aside  from  this, 
it  is  a  restatement  of  old  truths;  for  that 
matter,  so  is  every  philosophy  and  every 
religion.  No  system  can  ever  again  be  for- 
mulated that  shall  not  owe  something  to 
earlier  ones;  as  no  stratum  of  rock  can  ever 
be  added  to  the  earth's  crust  that  shall  not 
be  composed  of  earlier  geologic  strata. 

But  it  is  not  a  matter  of  chance  that  it  is  a 


Foreword  9 

restatement  of  particular  truths  and  an  elimin- 
ation of  particular  errors.  It  is  the  expression 
of  Idealism  in  these  Times  and  of  this  People : 
at  heart  a  religious  movement,  as  well  as  an 
obstinate  attempt  of  a  practical  people  to 
divest  themselves  of  popular  fallacies  and  to 
get  nearer  the  truth.  It  came  into  being 
because  of  the  spiritual  needs  of  this  age  and 
belongs  to  this  age.  We  have  however  all 
too  many  divisions,  religious  and  irreligious, 
philosophic  and  unphilosophic,  upon  which 
to  hang  our  prejudices. 

We  do  not,  every  time  a  new  island  is  dis- 
covered, thereupon  establish  a  new  school  of 
geography;  and  for  a  like  reason,  advance 
in  any  science  belongs  to  that  science  and  its 
benefits  to  all  who  can  avail  themselves  of 
its  truth. 


PART  I 

FIRST  PRINCIPLES 


It 


CHAPTER  I 

METAPHYSICS 

IN  the  following  review  of  first  principles  no 
^  general  exposition  of  such  large  subjects 
as  metaphysics,  religion,  and  ethics  is  pro- 
posed, but  the  intention  is  merely  to  get  at 
that  in  each  which  is  fundamental  and  the 
consideration  of  which  is  essential  to  our 
subject — a  practical  one,  undertaken,  not  for 
any  mere  speculative  interest,  but  wholly 
because  of  its  bearing  upon  character  and 
health. 

It  is  not  the  abstractions  of  metaphysics, 
but  a  true  metaphysical  basis  for  our  own 
thinking  which  concerns  us;  not  speculative 
philosophy  but  a  sane  philosophy  of  life; 
not  the  psychology  of  schoolmen  but  the 
practical  working  and  efficient  control  of  the 
mind.  It  can  be  shown  that  these  subjects, 
far  from  being  the  mere  diversion  of  scholars 
and  pedants,  are  those  which  alone  enable 
us  to  establish  a  true  ground  for  our  think- 

13 


14  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

ing;  that  as  they  are  necessarily  the  basis  of 
right-thinking,  so  is  right-thinking  in  turn 
the  foundation  of  health  and  happiness. 

We  shall  now  briefly  consider  some  as- 
pects of  metaphysics  which  will  aid  us  in 
defining  our  point  of  view,  and  which  will 
serve  as  a  preparation  for  what  is  to  follow. 

First,  as  to  the  psychology  of  perception; 
the  facts  are  quite  at  variance  with  the  fiction 
commonly  accepted  as  truth.  Perception  of 
the  external  world  is  through  sensation;  the 
five  senses  are  so  many  open  doors  through 
which  tidings  come  to  us  from  without.  To 
the  eye,  come  ethereal  vibrations  of  incon- 
ceivable rapidity  and  of  different  wave  lengths. 
To  the  ear  come  aerial  vibrations  of  compara- 
tive slowness,  varying  with  the  pitch.  Through 
touch,  taste,  and  smell,  we  receive  other  modes 
of  vibration,  each  appealing  to  the  special 
nerve  apparatus  designed  to  receive  it.  When 
the  vibration  impinges  upon  the  nerve  re- 
ceiver— the  retina  for  instance — it  sets  up 
another  mode  of  vibration  in  that  organ  which 
is  communicated  to  the  corresponding  brain 
area,  where  it  gives  rise  to  still  further  activity. 
This  final  activity  is  interpreted  by  the 
percipient  mind,  and  the  object  from  which 
emanated  the  original  vibration  is  perceived, 


Metaphysics  15 

as  a  red  rose  let  us  say.  Again,  let  sound 
waves  fall  upon  the  ear  and  through  a  similar 
process  the  mind  perceives  the  tolling  of 
a  bell.  But  the  colour  of  the  rose  and  the 
sound  of  the  bell  are  purely  sensations  in 
the  percipient  mind;  in  the  external  world, 
until  they  reach  the  brain  and  are  inter- 
preted by  the  mind,  they  are  vibrations 
merely.  Colour  and  sound  are  in  the  eye 
and  ear  and  not  in  the  object,  or  to  speak 
precisely,  sensation  is  an  act  of  consciousness. 
Pain  is  in  the  mind ;  pleasure  is  in  the  mind. 

As  we  cannot  know  God  directly,  so  neither 
can  we  know  matter  per  se.  All  that  we  know, 
or  ever  can  know  directly  of  matter  are  the 
sensations  to  which  it  gives  rise  in  the  mind. 
This  brings  us  to  the  consideration  of  mind 
and  matter  and  I  shall  aim  to  clearly  state 
my  position  in  this  regard:  for  it  is  a  subject 
on  which  the  world  is  always  divided  and 
in  reference  to  which  much  confusion  exists, 
the  object  to-day  of  much  ill-considered 
speculation  and  unphilosophic  thought. 

It  is  indisputable  that  we  cannot  know  the 
object  in  itself,  but  only  the  sensations  to 
which  it  gives  rise;  that  the  outer  world  is 
both  colourless  and  soundless,  and  that  what 
we  perceive  as  colour  and  sound  are  sensations 


i6  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

induced  in  us  by  vibrations  from  without — 
that  sensation  is  wholly  in  mind.  What  then 
does  exist  outside  of  ourselves?  What  is 
matter?  It  will  be  recalled  that  extreme 
Idealism — such  as  Christian  Science — takes 
the  position  that  all  is  mind  and  there  is  no 
such  thing  as  matter.  This  ground  is  certainly 
untenable,  though  it  is  not  as  absurd  as  it 
appears  to  the  unthinking  or  half -educated. 
The  opposite  extreme — ^that  all  is  matter,  and 
that  what  we  call  mind  is  merely  a  secretion 
of  matter — is  far  more  absurd.  It  should  be 
remembered  that,  since  knowing  is  itself  a 
mental  process  and  all  we  know  of  matter  is 
through  mind,  the  burden  of  proof  rests  upon 
the  materialist  and  not  upon  the  idealist. 
To  prove  the  existence  of  matter  is  more 
difficult  than  to  prove  the  existence  of  mind. 

We  know  a  rose  by  means  of  its  form,  colour, 
and  perfume.  As  we  have  seen,  these  give 
rise  to  sensations  which  result  in  the  percep- 
tion of  the  rose.  We  have  interpreted,  not 
the  rose  itself  however,  but  only  those  sensa- 
tions induced  by  the  rose  Take  away  form, 
colour,  and  perfume  and  what  remains  ?  Noth- 
ing, says  the  extremist;  there  was  nothing  to 
begin  with  but  your  own  sensations.  This 
is  one  of  those  half-truths  which  so  often  pass 


Metaphysics  1 7 

for  truth.  What  gives  us  these  particular 
sensations,  or  any  sensations,  when  we  look  at^ 
the  rose  ?  It  is  true  the  colour  is  in  the  mind 
and  not  in  the  object,  but  it  is  equally  true  that 
the  sensation  of  colour  in  the  mind  is  induced 
by  a  vibration  from  without,  emanating  from 
a  something — we  know  not  what — and  that 
without  that  vibration  and  that  unknow- 
able something  which  gives  rise  to  vibration, 
we  would  have  no  sensation  of  colour.'  That 
something  is  what  we  call  matter.  What 
it  is  in  itself  we  do  not  know:  we  know  it  only 
by  its  qualities.  But  whatever  it  may  be,  it 
is  as  real  as  the  perceiving  mind.  ^ 

That  which  does  not  endure,  and  hence  is 
properly  not  real  but  an  appearance  merely,  is 
the  form  which  matter  assumes  to  us.  With 
perfect  propriety  we  may  affirm  that  form  has 
no  reality,  but  we  cannot  truly  so  affirm  of 
matter  itself,  that  unknown  something  per- 
ceived through  its  multiple  forms.  To  return 
to  the  rose — its  form  is  constantly  changing; 
during  no  two  successive  intervals  of  time 
is  it  precisely  the  same,  though  by  reason  of 
the  coarseness  of  our  vision  we  are  unable  to 
take  note  of  these  mutations.  From  the 
seed  in  the  ground  to  the  full-blown  rose  and 
thence  to  the  soil  to  which  its  petals  return, 


i8  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

we  may  never  truly  say  of  the  form  that  it  is, 
but  only  that  it  is  becoming.  The  idea  of  the 
rose  persists  as  does  that  unknown  matter 
with  which  it  is  clothed ;  but  the  form  by  which 
we  perceive  it,  does  not  persist  and  is  unreal, 
is  a  phantom  shape  appearing  on  the  field 
of  consciousness  for  a  moment,  only  to  van- 
ish into  nothingness. 

So  with  the  outer  world,  so  with  our  own 
bodies ;  the  form  which  they  assume  is  unreal, 
the  unknown  and  unknowable  substance  of 
which  they  are  composed  is  indestructible. 
Used  over  and  over  again  in  millions  of  bodies 
and  millions  of  worlds,  it  has  not  hfe  of  itself, 
but  is  animated  by  the  life-force.  The  Spirit 
puts  it  on  as  a  garment  and  casts  it  off  again. 
You  may  tear  the  garment  into  tatters,  you 
may  bum  the  rags  to  ashes,  but  you  have  only 
resolved  the  primeval  matter  into  some  other 
form.  Both  spirit  and  matter  are  indestruc- 
tible; form  alone  is  unreal.  What  we  call 
matter,  then,  is  the  object  of  which  spirit 
is  the  subject.  One  implies  the  other.  There 
cannot  be  an  inside  and  no  outside,  nor  an  out- 
side and  no  inside.  Similarly  there  cannot  be 
a  subject  with  no  object  of  perception ;  neither 
an  object  with  no  perceiving  subject.  The 
position  of  spiritual  monism  is  hence  the  most 


Metaphysics  19 

rational  and  the  most  unassailable: — there  is 
one  eternal  Substance  which  is  both  subject 
and  object .    That  * '  eternal  Substance ' '  is  God . 

In  this  analysis,  it  appears  that  matter 
merely  serves  to  give  temporary  form  to 
spirit;  that  it  has  no  life  of  itself,  no  sensations 
in  itself.  It  does  not  move  but  is  moved;  it 
does  not  act  but  is  acted  upon  by  the  life- 
force.  The  Spirit  alone  gives  life.  Let  us 
bring  this  home  to  ourselves  in  the  realisation 
that  the  body  has  no  life  of  itself,  no  sensation, 
no  intelligence.  Inert,  it  is  acted  upon  by  the 
informing  mind  and  when  that  is  withdrawn 
is  resolved  into  its  elements,  which  are  at  once 
seized  upon  to  enter  into  other  temporary 
combinations. 

One  word  more  as  to  the  relation  of  the 
percipient  mind  to  the  objective  world :  when 
we  look  at  the  flower,  that  which  we  really 
see  is  the  flower  plus  the  content  of  our  own 
minds.  Perhaps  only  in  infancy — if  then — 
do  we  positively  perceive  anything;  in  later 
years  we  a^perceive  always.  That  is  to  say, 
the  result  of  any  act  of  perception  is  instantly 
conjoined  in  the  mind  to  the  "  apperceiving 
mass" — the  ideas  already  in  the  mind — 
and  what  we  become  conscious  of  is  in  reality 
the    sum.     This    ''apperceiving    mass"    may 


20  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

be  very  slight,  it  may  be  very  vague;  the  more 
highly  cultivated  the  mind,  the  more  likely 
it  is  to  be  considerable  because  of  the  extensive 
association  of  ideas.  A  simple  peasant,  there- 
fore, comes  nearer  to  seeing  a  rose  as  a  rose, 
than  the  naturalist,  the  poet,  or  the  philoso- 
pher. In  the  minds  of  the  latter  it  induces, 
together  with  the  acts  of  perception,  so  many 
associative  processes  that  the  view  of  the 
object  is  coloured  by  personal  experience, 
the  play  of  emotion,  and  a  scientific  or  a 
philosophic  bias. 

The  practical  bearing  of  the  foregoing  facts 
will  be  seen  at  once  when  we  consider  that,  as 
all  we  know  is  through  mind,  much  depends  on 
the  quality  and  fitness  of  the  mind  we  possess. 
To  look  through  a  distorting  glass  is  to  see  a 
distorted  world ;  and  to  perceive  the  world  with 
a  mind  out  of  focus  is  to  see  life  all  awry- 
To  put  the  mind  in  focus  that  it  may  see 
life  clearly  as  it  is — fact  for  fact  and  error 
for  error — is  the  object  of  this  study.  If  we 
were  to  adjust  a  telescope  we  should  require 
a  knowledge  of  the  laws  of  optics,  and  for  the 
same  reason  we  cannot  properly  regulate  the 
mind  without  an  understanding  of  those  ele- 
ments of  philosophy  which  are  the  basis  of 
true  concepts  and  right-thinking. 


Metaphysics  21 

If  now  we  regard  causation,  we  shall  see 
that  it  is  not  the  property  of  matter  but  of 
mind,  for  matter  does  not  act  of  itself  but 
is  acted  upon.  The  relation  of  the  mind  to 
the  brain  we  shall  take  up  in  a  later  chapter. 
It  is  sufficient  for  the  moment  to  say  that 
idealism  naturally  rests  on  the  assumption 
that  the  brain  is  merely  the  instrument  of 
the  mind,  in  opposition  to  the  materialistic 
assertion  that  thought  is  the  secretion  of 
the  brain.  Recent  study  of  the  pathology 
of  the  brain  has  given  ample  proof  of  the 
validity  of  the  idealist  position,  which  will 
here  be  taken  not  as  hypothesis  but  as  fact. 

The  idea  of  mental  causation  is  the  working 
basis  of  mental  healing  and  while  it  is  grounded 
in  fact,  it  needs  some  qualification.  Matter 
is  acted  upon  by  force,  and  that  force  may 
be  resident  in  the  individual  mind  or  in  that 
aspect  of  the  cosmic  mind  we  call  Nature. 
The  brain  has  been  compared  by  Dr.  Thomp- 
son, in  his  study  of  that  organ,  to  a  violin. 
The  violin  does  not  play  of  itself;  it  is  played 
upon.  But  the  player  is  dependent  upon  his 
violin,  no  matter  how  great  a  musician  he 
may  be.  So  the  mind  uses  the  brain  as  an 
instrument,  but  if  the  brain  fails  to  act  nor- 
mally, the  mind  cannot  function  through  it. 


22  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

The  player  is  as  good  a  violinist  as  ever,  but 
he  cannot  manifest  his  talent  with  that 
violin ;  the  mind  may  be  clear,  but  it  cannot 
function  normally  on  the  material  plane  with 
a  defective  instrument. 

The  analogy  between  the  brain  and  the 
violin  is  by  no  means  complete,  and  the  illus- 
tration serves  us  no  further  for  the  simple 
reason  that  the  violin  is  independent  of  the 
player,  while  the  moment  the  thinker  is  dis- 
associated from  the  brain,  that  instrument 
begins  to  disintegrate  and  returns  to  the  dust 
from  which  it  was  fashioned.  It  has  no  life 
apart  from  the  thinker  who  uses  it.  Mark 
the  important  fact  that  it  is  built  up  day  by 
day,  or  disintegrated  as  the  case  may  be, 
by  the  quality  of  thought  indulged  by  the 
informing  mind. 

It  may  be  argued  that,  as  we  cannot 
live  without  eating,  therefore  food  is  the 
material  cause  of  our  life.  While  we  are  de- 
pendent upon  food  for  our  expression  on  this 
plane,  there  is  no  life  in  food  itself,  but  the 
life-force  seizes  upon  food  to  build  the  body. 
The  life-force  is  not  a  property  of  food;  it  is 
resident  in  universal  mind  and  merely  uses 
food  as  it  uses  the  dust  to  give  form  to  an 
idea.     Much  less  can  drugs  be  said  to  have 


Metaphysics  23 

life  in  themselves.  The  life-force  avails  itself 
of  food  as  its  natural  building  material; 
it  does  not  so  avail  itself  of  drugs,  unless 
what  we  name  a  drug  is  in  reality  a  food- 
preparation  under  that  name,  in  which  case 
it  is  properly  not  a  drug  at  all  but  a  food. 
A  mason  picks  up  stone  after  stone  and 
builds  it  into  his  wall,  but  if  by  chance  he 
takes  up  a  bit  of  rubbish,  he  immediately 
rejects  it  as  unsuitable  to  his  purpose — 
it  is  not  building  material.  So  the  life-force 
uses  food,  but  it  cannot  use  a  drug.  The 
assumption,  however,  that  a  drug  has  no 
action  whatever,  apart  from  a  belief  in  it,  is 
untenable ;  it  may  or  may  not  have  a  chemical 
reaction  and  this,  be  it  remembered,  is  not 
matter  acting  upon  itself  but  force  acting 
upon  matter.  The  assumption,  on  the  other 
hand,  that  a  drug  has  no  curative  action  apart 
from  belief  and  faith,  rests  on  good  ground  and 
is  essentially  true.  In  any  case  no  action 
takes  place  in  the  body  independent  of  mind, 
conscious  or  subconscious.  Apart  from  the 
mind  the  body  has  no  existence  and  the  mind 
is  necessarily  a  factor  in  every  change,  mo- 
lecular or  atomic,  which  goes  on  in  this  its 
material  expression. 

The  nature  and  extent  of  these  reactions 


24  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

are  extremely  variable  and  governed  by  psy- 
chic conditions  of  which  at  present  we  have 
little  understanding.  It  is  amply  vouched 
for  by  competent  witnesses  that  certain  South 
Sea  Islanders  walk  upon  hot  stones  and  are 
not  burned;  that  the  Hopi  Indians  are  re- 
peatedly bitten  by  rattlesnakes  with  fangs 
intact  and  not  poisoned.  In  hypnosis,  sweet 
may  taste  sour  and  sour  sweet,  hot  water  be 
cold  and  ice  water  hot,  pain  be  pleasant  and 
pleasure  pain — all  at  the  will  of  the  agent. 

In  concluding  this  preliminary  chapter, 
let  us  consider  an  aspect  of  nature  in  its 
bearing  upon  the  individual.  Nature  is  cos- 
mic mind  in  manifestation.  All  manifesta- 
tion is  conditioned  by  the  qualities,  and  the 
point  to  make  here  as  essentially  metaphysical 
in  its  relation  is,  that  these  qualities  are  resi- 
dent in  nature  rather  than  in  us,  are  universal, 
that  is,  and  not  personal.  Birth  and  death 
are  conditions  of  manifestation  and  whatever 
is  bom  must  die.  If  we  do  not  wish  to  die, 
we  must  cease  being  bom.  But  death,  be 
it  remembered,  is  not  a  cessation  of  the  life- 
force,  but  merely  its  withdrawal  from  the 
form  which  it  animated.  Life  and  matter  are 
eternal.  It  is  the  form  alone  which  changes, 
for  form  has  no  abiding  reality.     All  mani- 


Metaphysics  25 

festation  is  conditioned  by  Time  and  Space. 
Only  the  Absolute — by  its  nature  uncon- 
ditioned— is  free,  a  fact  we  shall  be  led  to 
consider  in  connection  with  the  Soul  and 
consciousness.  That  which  partakes  of  the 
Absolute,  being  unconditioned  by  Time,  is 
eternal;  but  Eternity,  far  from  being  infinite 
extension  of  Time,  means  timelessness.  The 
Eternal,  therefore,  is  out  of  Time  and  Space, 
and  it  is  the  manifestation  of  life,  not  life  itself, 
which  is  conditioned  by  them.  Were  philoso- 
phic acumen  prized  as  much  as  business 
shrewdness,  or  did  education  provide  us  any 
philosophic  training,  we  would  have  some 
assurance  of  these  things,  in  place  of  the 
sophistry  and  shallow  cynicism  which  take 
the  place  of  thought. 

That  which  we  know  as  Nature  and  which 
makes  itself  known  through  the  lower  animals 
as  Instinct  is  equally  dominant  in  its  control 
of  our  own  minds  in  much  that  seems  to  us 
personal,  but  is,  in  reality,  as  impersonal  as 
the  winds.  The  wind  blows  over  the  forest  and 
the  leaves  rustle ;  if  the  wind  is  west,  they  bend 
one  way,  and  if  it  is  east,  they  bend  another. 
So,  the  sex  instinct,  the  parental  instinct,  the 
food  instinct,  which  are  merely  Nature  acting 
upon  us  to  do  her  will,  pass  over  us  like  the 


26  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

winds,  and  when  they  come,  we  bend.  Un- 
Uke  the  leaves,  however,  we  may  direct  this 
power  of  Nature  as  it  acts  through  us,  in  such 
a  way  as  to  conserve  our  own  welfare ;  or  we 
may  misdirect  it  to  our  own  sorrow. 

Similarly  the  world-thought  itself  acts  upon 
us  like  a  species  of  contagion,  and  the  un- 
thinking are  swayed,  as  bending  grass  in  a 
storm,  by  the  manias  and  epidemics  of 
society.  The  process  of  self-help  involves 
a  clarifying  of  the  intellect  and  a  strengthen- 
ing of  the  will,  so  that  we  may  properly  meet 
these  unceasing  forces  of  Nature  and  of  the 
world  in  such  a  way  as  to  react  upon  them 
to  our  own  spiritual,  intellectual,  and  physical 
advantage.  The  surf  beats  upon  the  shell- 
fish on  the  shore,  but  they,  in  place  of  being 
crushed  by  its  force,  extract  their  food  and  the 
wherewithal  to  build  their  shells  from  the 
on-rushing  waves. 

The  question  of  good  and  evil,  of  reality  and 
unreality,  which  engages  us  under  the  head 
of  Metaphysics,  is  reserved  for  the  next 
chapter  in  order  to  consider  it  in  connection 
with  God,  the  essential  Reality  of  the  universe. 


CHAPTER  II 
GOD 

IT  is  essential  we  should  entertain  the 
clearest  possible  conception  of  that  which 
we  call  God  and  of  our  relation  to  Him.  To 
this  end  it  may  be  necessary  to  divest  our- 
selves of  certain  false  ideals  which  serve  no 
good  purpose  and  are  wholly  unphilosophic : 
all  conceptions  of  God,  that  is,  which  attribute 
to  Him  the  possibility  of  change,  or  which 
constitute  the  Deity  merely  a  magnified 
human  being.  Furthermore,  we  must  get 
rid  of  the  belief  in  two  gods — in  a  power  of 
Good  and  a  power  of  Evil,  forever  opposed 
to  each  other.  God  may  not  be  defined, 
for  obviously  the  Infinite  is  not  subject  to 
definition.  As  a  part  cannot  contain  the 
whole,  the  finite  mind  can  never  grasp  the 
Infinite  which  is  God.  We  must,  however, 
frame  for  ourselves  an  idea  of  God,  nor  is 
this  necessarily  a  cold  abstraction.     A  child 

27 


28  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

can  have  no  adequate  idea  of  the  content 
of  his  father's  mind,  or  of  that  which  makes 
up  his  character  and  personaUty,  until  he  has 
attained  years  of  discretion,  perhaps  not  be- 
fore he  has  become  a  father  himself;  yet  he 
feels  that  his  father  is  a  loving  and  protecting 
influence,  and  that  idea  fulfils  all  the  needs 
of  his  childhood.  In  this  way  we  may  postu- 
late God  to  ourselves  for  the  needs  of  our 
spiritual  life,  and  while  we  do  not  in  reality 
define,  we  establish  our  idea  of  God  on  a 
correct  basis,  true  as  far  as  it  goes,  and  suffi- 
cient for  our  needs.  Thus  we  truly  afhrm 
that  God  is  Spirit,  that  God  is  Love,  and 
this  satisfies  our  religious  idea.  With  equal 
verity  we  affirm  that  God  is  the  Absolute 
and  Unchangeable,  the  essential  Reality, 
and  this  concept  answers  our  metaphysical 
or  philosophical  demands. 

When  we  come  to  consider  the  more  practi- 
cal and  applied  aspects  of  our  subject,  we 
shall  see  that  we  may  speak  as  definitely 
and  as  concretely  as  of  chemistry  or  geology 
or  any  other  practical  matter.  But  of  God 
we  can  never  speak  thus  directly,  for  the  inter- 
pretation of  the  spiritual  in  terms  of  the 
phenomenal,  of  the  Infinite  in  terms  of  the 
finite,   must   always    of    necessity   lack   ex- 


God  29 

plicitness  as  well  as  comprehensiveness.  In 
this  relation,  faith  is  a  larger  element 
than  reason.  While  the  idea  of  God  which 
we  are  here  entertaining  is  perhaps  as  exact 
as  any  the  human  mind  is  capable  of  con- 
ceiving, we  must,  nevertheless,  realise  that 
God  is  not  a  particular  concept  but  the 
ground  of  all  concepts,  not  what  we  know, 
but  that  by  which  we  know,  not  what  we  see 
but  that  power  by  which  we  are  able  to  see. 
An  idea  of  a  changeable  God  will  have  no 
part,  then,  in  our  philosophy;  neither  the 
idea  of  a  ruler,  king,  or  judge;  nor  of  an 
absentee  or  extra  cosmic  god.  All  such  ideas 
represent  the  grouping  of  the  human  mind 
in  its  slow  evolution  and  are  no  more  practical 
and  not  a  whit  more  philosophical  than  the 
ideas  of  the  savage.  God  is  the  underlying 
Reality  of  the  Universe,  forever  immanent  in 
the  world.  In  Him  we  have  our  being;  in 
us  He  has  expression.  Let  us  then  henceforth 
think  of  God,  not  as  loving,  but  as  Love  itself, 
not  as  wise,  but  as  Wisdom  itself,  not  as  good, 
but  as  infinite  and  eternal  Goodness.  At 
the  very  outset  we  can  entertain  no  more 
practical  suggestion  than  that  we  should 
ennoble  and  clarify  our  idea  of  God;  that  we 
should  make  it  more  real,   vital,   and  ever- 


30  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

present  in  consciousness.  While  our  relation 
to  God  is  religion,  it  is  at  the  same  time  the 
most  fundamental  and  practical  relation  of 
life.  The  time  has  passed  when  religion  may 
be  regarded  as  a  matter  of  dogma  or  creeds 
or  mere  sentimentality.  While  God  is  never 
to  be  fully  comprehended  by  the  finite  mind, 
the  power  of  God  can  be  appropriated  by  man. 
Here  is  the  key  to  the  whole  matter — and 
this  is  practical  religion.  In  a  subsequent 
chapter  we  shall  consider  this  relationship 
more  at  length,  for  not  only  is  it  the  sum  and 
substance  of  a  rational  religion  but  it  is  the 
root  of  any  permanent  self-help.  Man  is 
nothing  without  God;  he  is  great  in  the  ratio 
that  he  permits  the  divine  energy  and  wisdom 
to  manifest  through  him. 

We  were  bred  to  the  idea  of  a  warring  dual- 
ism, of  opposing  principles  of  Good  and  Evil, 
and  the  roots  of  this  false  theology  are  tangled 
in  the  mental  and  moral  being  of  the  race. 
It  amounted  to  a  belief  in  two  gods — neither 
of  them  real.  Its  influence  on  the  race- 
thought  has  been  baneful.  Upon  him  whose 
mind  is  still  divided  in  the  belief  in  two 
self -existent  powers,  the  effect  is  weakening 
and  confusing.  There  is  one  God,  one  Princi- 
ple, one  Reality,  and  one  only — self-existent, 


God 


31 


absolute,  eternal.  One  cannot  too  often 
fortify  the  mind  with  this  concept,  for  in 
reality  are  our  refuge  and  our  strength.  Abun- 
dant evil  and  abuse  there  surely  are  in  the  world 
but  a  principle  of  Evil,  a  self-existent  power 
of  Evil  there  is  not,  and  such  an  idea  must 
be  buried  in  the  graveyard  of  Superannuated 
Beliefs.  From  our  ignorance,  our  mistakes, 
our  selfishness,  and  the  ignorance  and  selfish- 
ness of  others,  arise  our  troubles  and  tribu- 
lations, and  source  other  than  this  there  is 
none.  We  mistake  illusion  for  reality  and 
appearance  for  fact.  Ignorance  has  ever 
been  the  arch  enemy  of  mankind,  but  mark 
that  ignorance  is  neither  a  principle  nor  a 
person,  but  merely  our  deficiency  in  wisdom, 
as  darkness  is  the  absence  of  light,  cold  the 
absence  of  heat.  Like  children  we  learn  our 
lessons  and  suffer  the  results  of  our  mistakes 
and  our  faults,  while  through  experience  and 
through  insight  we  slowly  establish  in  our 
minds,  truth  in  place  of  error,  reality  in  place 
of  illusion. 

Later  we  shall  consider  that  fundamental 
and  yet  little  recognised  fact  of  philosophy, 
that  whatever  we  think  a  thing  to  be,  that 
it  is  to  us;  for  what  we  know  is  never  the 
thing  in  itself,  but  our  concept  of  it.     This 


32  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

truth,  so  practical  in  its  bearing  upon  the 
subject  of  self-help  must  receive  considerable 
emphasis  in  the  present  inquiry.  Thus  the 
race  has  experienced  continued  harm  through 
its  belief  in  powers  of  evil  and  darkness; 
harm  which  came  not  from  the  supposed 
power,  but  from  the  belief  itself.  We  have 
been  only  theoretical  monotheists;  practically 
we  have  believed  in  a  god  of  Evil  quite  as 
much,  if  not  more,  than  in  a  God  of  Good. 
Let  us  aim  now  to  admit  the  light,  in  the 
assurance  that  whereas  light  is  real  and  active, 
darkness  is  not  an  entity  but  merely  the 
absence  of  light  and  must  disappear  as  the 
light  enters;  in  the  assurance,  as  well,  that 
Good  is  the  essential  ReaHty  of  the  universe 
and  that  Evil,  having  no  source  but  the  human 
mind,  must  vanish  in  presence  of  good,  as 
darkness  is  dispersed  by  the  sun's  rays. 

Fully  as  important  as  the  concept  of 
God  as  Love,  is  the  postulate  of  metaphysics 
that  God  is  the  one  Reality,  and  that  all 
that  is  not  God — not  good  in  itself — is  an 
appearance  and  not  a  reality.  The  appearance 
has  that  power  with  which  human  belief  in- 
vests it,  but  no  power  in  and  of  itself.  God 
can  be  none  other  than  good  and  there  can 
be  nothing  but  God.     Therefore  all  that  is  is 


God  33 

good.  But  alas  there  are  appearances,  il- 
lusions, figments — all  masquerading  as  real, 
which  like  ghosts  haunt  the  mind.  To  rid 
ourselves  of  these  by  seeing  clearly — by 
seeing  truth  in  place  of  error — is  the  problem 
that  every  man  must  endeavour  to  solve.  To 
this  end  there  is  perhaps  no  better  rule  than 
that  given  by  Emerson:  ''If  we  live  truly, 
we  shall  see  truly." 

To  let  the  light  into  a  room  means  at  the 
same  time  to  dissipate  the  darkness;  and  to 
admit  truth  consciously  to  the  mind  means 
to  overcome  error  in  one  and  the  same  act. 
If  we  would  be  warm,  we  do  not  theorise 
about  the  sun  but  go  into  the  sunlight. 
Concern  yourself,  not  so  much  with  what  is 
God,  but  what  is  God  to  you.  Take  counsel 
with  yourself  as  to  whether  the  idea  of  good, 
or  of  evil,  is  uppermost  in  your  mind.  Which 
are  you  making  real  to  yourself  in  your 
thoughts?  How  much  are  you  bringing  God 
into  consciousness  by  thinking  good  and  ex- 
cluding thoughts  of  evil?  Reflect  that  when 
your  consciousness  is  wholly  filled  with  good 
there  is  no  room  for  its  opposite,  which  then 
ceases  to  have  even  an  apparent  reality  to 
you.  If  in  the  forest  you  perceive  that  a 
stump  is  a  stump,  you  give  no  thought  to 


34  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

the  possibility  of  its  being  a  bear;  if  on  the 
other  hand,  you  can  not  see  clearly,  you 
may  be  vexed  with  fears  of  a  grizzly,  though 
there  is  nothing  ahead  but  a  stump.  Aim 
to  see  clearly,  to  see  reaHty — God,  that  is — 
and  not  illusion  and  to  hold  fast  to  the  real. 
Now  God  is  Spirit,  God  is  Truth,  and  God  is 
Love,  and  to  be  spiritually  minded,  to  love 
truth  and  to  love  mankind  is  to  bring  God  into 
consciousness. 


CHAPTER  III 
THE  SOUL 

PREVALENT  notions  about  the  Soul  are 
even  more  vague  and  unphilosophic 
than  the  ideas  of  God.  No  distinction  is 
made  in  common  parlance,  indeed  it  is  seldom 
made  by  current  writers  on  religious  and 
philosophic  topics,  between  the  mere  passing 
states  of  consciousness  and  the  Soul  which  is 
that  permanent  spiritual  being  on  which  these 
states  are  combined.  It  is  true  that  the 
materialists  in  Philosophy  do  not  admit 
this.  But  those  who  are  naturally  committed 
to  a  spiritual  point  of  view,  ministers  of  the 
Gospel  no  less  than  exponents  of  the  ''New 
Thought,"  yet  write  with  a  vague  notion 
of  that  fundamental  truth  upon  which  any 
spiritual  philosophy  must  rest.  In  this  ma- 
terialistic age  we  have  come  to  assume  that 
spirit  means  something  changeable,  ephemeral, 
unreal,  whereas  the  very  reverse  is  true: 
the  world  of  form,  the  phenomenal,  is  the 

35 


36  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

impermanent,  devoid  of  essential  reality, 
while  spirit  is  that  which  is  alone  unchange- 
able and  real  in  an  absolute  sense. 

The  Church  still  preaches  the  salvation  of 
the  Soul,  whereas  that  being  the  only  part  of 
us  which  is  unchangeable,  is  obviously  the 
one  element  which  cannot  possibly  need  salva- 
tion from  anything,  since  it  can  never  be  better 
or  worse,  any  more  than  a  square  can  be 
more  or  less  square.  Much  of  this  vagueness 
rises  from  confusion  of  terms  as  well  as  of 
ideas.  What  is  generally  implied  by  the 
Soul  is,  not  the  Soul  at  all,  but  merely  the 
stream  of  consciousness.  Nothing  is  more 
important  than  that  we  should  clearly  tmder- 
stand  this  distinction,  and  to  do  this  we  must 
divest  ourselves  of  those  unphilosophic  ideas 
in  which  we  have  grown  up  and  which  we 
have  accepted  without  any  thought  on  the 
subject.  The  basis  of  a  real  and  practical 
mental  science — of  any  spiritual  philosophy — 
is  the  root-idea  of  the  permanence  of  the 
Soul — the  real  man — in  distinction  to  the 
changing  consciousness.  And  the  problem 
of  self-help  is  the  bringing  that  real  man  to 
the  front,  in  other  words,  the  realisation  of 
the  Soul,  the  bringing  of  the  Soul  into  con- 
sciousness.    If  it  were  not  for  the  Soul,  this 


The  Soul  37 

absolute  and  unchangeable  background  of 
consciousness,  man  could  not  be  said  to  have 
any  real  identity  at  all,  for  consciousness 
itself  is  merely  a  flowing  stream. 

In  our  various  states  of  mind  we  are  more 
or  less  aware  of  an  ''I"  who  is  conscious. 
I  am  now  aware,  for  instance,  that  my  mind  is 
reflecting  on  this  subject.  Who  is  this  *'I" 
who  is  observing  the  stream  of  consciousness, 
like  a  spectator  on  the  bank  of  a  river? 
Who  is  this  in  the  background  of  my  idea 
of  self  ?  It  is  the  self  as  knower — the  Thinker 
— while  the  stream  of  consciousness  at  any 
given  moment  is  the  self  as  known — the 
empirical  ego.  The  self  as  knower — the 
Soul — is  one  and  unchangeable.  It  is  that 
by  which  we  are  conscious;  that  which  appro- 
priates the  various  "mes"  of  the  empiri- 
cal ego  and  gives  them  a  seeming  identity; 
that  upon  which  the  states  of  mind  are  com- 
bined. This  combination  would  be  impossi- 
ble were  there  nothing  permanent  upon  which 
to  combine;  as  you  cannot  have  moving  pic- 
tures unless  there  is  an  immovable  background 
upon  which  to  project  them. 

Our  idea  of  self,  then,  is  in  reality  dual  and 
includes  the  self  as  knower  and  the  self  as 
known.     Now  the  self  as  knower — the  Soul — 


38  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

is  the  subject,  not  the  object  of  thought,  and 
it  is  this  Self  which  is  identical  in  its  nature 
with  the  supreme  knower  of  the  world  whom 
we  call  God.  As  God  is  absolute,  and  out  of 
Time  and  Space,  so  is  the  Soul  absolute. 
It  is  one  with  God  and  inseparable  from 
Him  as  the  sunbeam  is  one  with  the  Sun. 
The  sunbeam  has  no  life  of  its  own,  but  par- 
takes of  the  life  and  nature  of  the  Sun.  So 
does  the  Soul  partake  of  the  life  of  God  and 
whatever  may  be  said  of  God  may  be  said  of 
the  Soul — ^which  is  God  in  us.  It  is  unborn, 
it  does  not  die;  it  is  not  sick,  it  does  not  suffer. 
It  is  purity  and  freedom,  as  God  is  purity  and 
freedom.  Fear  and  ignorance,  which  are  the 
enemies  of  the  world,  affect  the  empirical 
ego  alone  and  are  conditions  of  consciousness, 
not  of  being,  precisely  as  the  fog  does  not 
obscure  the  Sun,  though  it  appears  to;  what 
it  really  does  is  to  obscure  the  Earth. 

The  Soul,  then,  is  the  essential  reality 
in  man;  for  the  stream  of  consciousness, 
changing  every  moment,  has  only  that  ap- 
parent reality  of  the  phenomenal  universe. 
It  seems  to  have  an  identity  and  to  remain 
the  same,  but  is  in  fact  always  passing  into 
some  other  phase. 

Self-knowledge  implies,  not  a  cursory  know- 


The  Soul  39 

ledge  of  our  mental  states  or  our  personal 
traits,  but  it  means  the  perception  of  the 
Soul,  the  recognition  of  the  Soul's  identity 
with  the  Absolute  and  not  with  the  phenome- 
nal. The  ''Know  thyself"  of  the  Oracle  has 
become  a  catch  phrase,  and  its  real  signifi- 
cance is  lost  to  view.  Its  inner  meaning  was 
that  we  should  establish  our  identity  with 
the  Absolute  and  unchangeable.  If,  standing 
on  the  bank  of  a  stream,  you  should  imagine 
yourself  to  be  moving  onward  with  the  current, 
now  tossed  in  air,  now  drawn  under  the  waters, 
your  condition  would  illustrate  the  usual  state 
of  mind.  For  just  so  we  observe  the  passing 
stream  of  the  phenomenal  and  identify  our- 
selves with  it,  oblivious  of  the  fact  that  we — • 
that  the  knower,  the  real  man — is  himself 
unmoved  and  an  observer  merely  of  the 
stream. 

It  appears  that  Jesus  understood  clearly 
the  relation  of  the  Soul  to  God  which  was  the 
basis  of  his  life  and  teaching  and  which  he 
expressed  in  the  saying  "I  and  my  Father 
are  One. ' '  To  assume  that  the  idea  originated 
with  him  is  as  unscholarly  as  it  is  absurd, 
for  it  is  the  fundamental  doctrine  of  the 
Upanishad — an  idea  which  dominated  the 
religious    and    philosophic    thought    of   Asia 


40  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

many  centuries  before  the  beginning  of  the 
Christian  era.  But  who  discovered  that  two 
and  two  are  four;  and  would  not  the  sum  be 
four,  whether  any  one  discovered  it  or  not? 
Even  more  vital  and  practical  is  the  fact  of  the 
identity  of  the  Soul  with  the  Absolute.  Cease 
to  think  of  yourself  essentially  as  a  changeable 
and  ephemeral  creature;  the  body  changes, 
consciousness  is  a  flowing  stream,  but — 

Thy  Soul  and  God  stand  sure. 

The  Soul  is  that  in  us  which  does  not  suffer, 
nor  sin,  nor  die;  it  is  one  with  the  unchange- 
able Truth,  and  the  whole  problem  of  life — in 
terms  of  philosophy — is  that  we  should  learn 
to  identify  ourselves  with  the  Soul  and  not 
with  the  phenomenal  world. 

The  Soul,  as  we  have  seen,  being  the 
eternal  knower  in  us,  is  the  subject  of  know- 
ledge, not  the  object.  It  is,  therefore,  in  reality, 
not  that  of  which  we  are  conscious,  but  that 
by  which  we  have  consciousness.  Again  it 
is  not  that  which  is  seen  but  that  spiritual 
light  by  which  we  are  able  to  see  at  all. 

In  the  following  chapter  we  shall  consider 
the  personal  self — the  self  as  known — ^and  it 
will  become  apparent  that  in  the  regulation 
of  consciousness  the  main  thing  is  to  so  clarify 


The  Soul  41 

it  that  the  inner  light,  the  light  of  the  Soul, 
may  shine  through  this  enveloping  medium. 
Inasmuch  as  your  true  self  is  the  Soul,  you 
are  already  pure,  wise,  and  free.  Your  life 
work,  your  schooling  here,  is  to  bring  this 
truth  into  realisation. 


CHAPTER  IV 
THE  PERSONAL  SELF 

IF  we  reflect  for  a  moment,  we  shall  see  that 
^  what  we  commonly  regard  as  self  is  really 
made  up  of  several  or  many  selves,  none  of 
which  are  permanent.  Some  are  quite  evanes- 
cent, others  endure  for  a  comparatively  long 
period ;  they  either  contract  until  they  become  I 
nothing  or  expand  and  change  until  they  are 
virtually  something  else.  All  are  conditioned 
by  age  and  environment.  An  artist  has  a 
certain  idea  of  self  which  corresponds  to  that 
calling;  a  merchant,  another;  a  judge,  still 
another.  Each  of  these  is  accompanied  by  a 
particular  kind  of  self-esteem  as  well  as  a 
code  of  life  more  or  less  peculiar  to  itself. 
As  a  soldier  one  does  not  look  at  life  in  the 
same  way  as  a  clergyman,  and  hence  has  a 
different  basis  for  self-esteem,  or  condemna- 
tion— an  entirely  different  social  self  in  fact. 
Again,  in  relation  to  our  social  life — our 
nationality,  city,  club,  college,  and  society — 

we  evolve,  each  for  himself,  a  representative 

42 


The  Personal  Self  43 

notion  of  self.  In  distinction  to  these  "  social 
selves"  we  have  various  ''material  selves" 
which  are  the  outcome  of  our  consciousness  of 
the  body.  Strong  or  weak,  sick  or  well,  fat 
or  lean,  full-fed  or  abstemious,  all  have 
corresponding  material  selves.  An  athlete 
cannot  possibly  think  of  himself  as  a  sick 
man,  nor  a  bon-vivant  as  a  lean  and  hungry 
Cassius.  We  have  again  what  may  be  called 
a  higher  self  which  answers  to  our  religious 
and  philosophic  thought.  This,  often  enough, 
is  only  in  evidence  on  Sunday,  while  at  other 
times  a  professional,  commercial,  social,  or 
material  self  is  in  the  ascendant. 

It  is  evident  furthermore,  that  our  ideas 
of  self,  or  properly  our  assortment  of  selves, 
changes  from  year  to  year,  and  those  peculiar 
to  age  are  totally  unlike  those  cherished  in 
youth.  You  have  little  sympathy  with  your-l 
self  as  you  once  were;  the  friends,  the  books, 
the  ideals,  the  conduct  of  your  earlier  years 
may  now  all  be  abhorrent  to  you,  and  you 
•are  ready  to  preach  against  every  idea  you 
'once  extolled  with  such  warmth.  Much  less 
can  you  understand  yourself  as  you  were 
when  an  infant  and  your  joy  in  life  was  a  rub- 
ber ring.  Anon  you  will  look  back  at  your 
present  self  in  much  the  same  way. 


44  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

Nor  are  we  the  same  for  two  days  at  a 
time,  for  we  have  selves  that  correspond 
to  our  varying  moods;  selves  which  hold 
sway  for  brief  periods  only  and  immediately 
give  way  to  others  that  may  be  wholly  out  of 
sympathy  with  them.  In  the  normal  mindp 
the  selves  are  so  related  and  banded  together 
by  a  certain  unity  of  consciousness  that  we  slip 
from  one  to  the  other,  as  we  might  change  ourj 
clothes,  experiencing  no  sense  of  changed 
identity,  and  our  friends  recognise  us  in 
all  this  masquerade  as  the  same  man.  In 
abnormality,  however,  it  is  different,  and  per- 
sons have  been  known  to  have  two  and  even 
three  distinct  personalities,  totally  sundered, 
and  having  no  knowledge  one  of  the  other. 

The  way  the  world  looks  to  us  at  any 
moment  depends  upon  which  particular  self 
is  in  the  ascendant.  If  a  musical  self — we  are 
quite  out  of  harmony  with  a  business  meeting ; 
if  an  harassed  and  preoccupied  business  self — 
then  have  we  no  heart  for  a  quiet  walk  in 
the  country,  no  eyes  and  ears  for  birds  and 
flowers.  Consciousness  is  the  glass  through 
which  we  look.  If  we  are  out  of  sorts,  the 
world  is  dark:  if  in  a  cheerful  frame  of  mind, 
all  is  bright.  Evidently  we  must  keep  the 
glass  in  focus  if  we  are  to  see  clearly. 


The  Personal  Self  45 

These  various  selves  are  merely  states  of 
mind,  personal  to  us  and  of  seeming  perma- 
nence; in  other  words,  they  are  but  the  stream 
of  consciousness  in  a  certain  light  and  for  a 
given  time.  Every  state  of  mind  is  a  parO 
of  our  personal  consciousness;  the  states 
change  within  consciousness,  but  consciousness 
itself  is  continuous,  flowing  onward  like  slj 
river.  Hence  it  is  called  by  psychologists 
the  Stream  of  Consciousness.  While  we  are 
far  from  having  solved  all  the  mysteries 
connected  with  it,  a  number  of  practical 
truths  have  been  arrived  at,  both  in  its  work- 
ing and  in  its  relation  to  the  body,  which 
must  engage  our  attention  in  the  following 
pages. 

In  regard  to  our  consciousness  of  self  as  a 
social  being  in  distinction  from  the  conscious- 
ness of  self  as  body,  we  must  observe  that 
there  are  certain  divine  laws  which  underlie 
the  social  and  ethical  relations  of  men  and  that 
failure  to  observe  them  affects  always  the 
personal  self  by  disturbing  the  stream  of  con- 
sciousness. As  we  have  seen,  this  self  is  no 
more  than  the  thought  and  feeling  of  the 
day,  the  hour,  the  moment,  associated  with  a 
sum  representing  the  thoughts  and  feelings 
of  the  past.     Harmony  is  the  condition  to 


46  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

be  preserved,  for  where  we  are  out  of  harmony 
with  others,  we  are  thrown  out  of  harmony  ' 
within  ourselves.  If  we  are  not  just  and 
kind  in  our  relations  and  in  our  thoughts  of 
men,  the  character  of  the  self  must  suffer. 
It  is  impossible  to  injure  others  without  in- 
juring self,  and  whatever  benefit  we  confer 
upon  others  we  at  the  same  time  confer  upon 
ourselves. 

Thought  is  antecedent  to  act.  All  relations 
are  then  fundamentally  in  thought  and  the 
supervision  and  control  of  consciousness  is  the 
first  necessity.  Whatever  may  exist  outside 
of  my  own  mind,  one  thing  is  certain,  I  can 
perceive  it  only  through  my  mind,  and  what 
I  know  is  never  the  thing  itself  but  my  concept 
of  it.  Now  a  disturbed  mind  is  more  likely 
to  arrive  at  false  than  at  true  concepts.  Un- 
fortunately the  mind  reacts  upon  false  ideas 
quite  as  readily  as  upon  true,  and  it  is  just 
such  reactions  as  this  which  cause  most  of  our 
troubles  both  mental  and  physical. 

This  fact  received  the  greatest  emphasis 
from  that  most  pregnant  discovery  of  psychol- 
ogy, namely  that  all  consciousness  is  motor,1\ 
that  is,  all  feelings,  no  matter  how  slight,, 
necessarily  produce  movement  of  some  sort, 
through  the  nerve  centres,  but  not  in  the 


The  Personal  Self  47 

voluntary  muscles  alone,  for  it  may  expend 
itself  on  the  viscera.  In  this  connection, 
Professor  Bain  says: 

According  as  an  impression  is  accompanied  with 
feeling,  the  aroused  currents  diffuse  themselves  over 
the  brain,  leading  to  a  general  agitation  of  the  moving 
organs,  as  well  as  affecting  the  viscera. 

Professor  James  has  this  to  say: 

We  have  now  experimental  proof  that  the  heart- 
beats, the  arterial  pressure,  the  respiration,  the 
sweat-glands,  the  pupil,  the  bladder,  bowels,  and 
uterus,  as  well  as  the  voluntary  muscles,  may  have 
their  tone  and  degree  of  contraction  altered  even  by 
the  most  insignificant  sensorial  stimuli. 

The  foregoing  is  suf^cient  intimation  for 
the  present  moment  of  that  relation  of  mind 
and  body  which  we  shall  consider  in  Part  II. 
Let  it  be  remembered  in  this  connection  that 
all  sensation  is  necessarily  in  consciousness. 
If  we  are  not  conscious  of  it  there  is  no  sen- 
sation.    Activity  there  may  be  of  some  sort, 
but  sensation  there  is  not.     Pain  and  pleasure/ 
are  in  the  mind,  are  mental  states  within  the» 
stream  of  consciousness.     Just  so,  sight  andi 
hearing  are  purely  the  results  of  acts  of  con- 
sciousness.    The    eye    itself    can    no    more 
see  than  a  telescope  can  see;  the  ear  is  as 


48  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

incapable  of  hearing  as  a  telephone  receiver. 
It  is  perfectly  true  that  out  of  consciousness 
there  is  neither  light  nor  sound,  but  vibration: 
merely,  which  through  the  instruments  of  eye 
and  ear  induces  in  the  recipient  mind  those 
sensations  we  know  as  light  and  sound. 

Consciousness  must  necessarily  have  an 
object.  If  that  object  be  the  body,  if  it  be 
wholly  engrossed  with  the  material  self,  it  is 
very  likely  to  produce  bodily  disorder  and 
certainly  it  is  an  unprofitable  state  of  mind; 
for  it  is  Spirit  which  quickeneth  and  flesh 
profits  little  or  nothing  beyond  being  an 
efiicient  instrument  of  the  mind's  activities. 
Too  much  attention  to  the  body  invariably 
produces  trouble.  While  it  should  have 
reasonable  care,  if  pampered  it  readily  in- 
duces a  false  consciousness  and  the  material 
self  becomes  a  tyrant  usurping  the  place  of 
true  and  better  selves. 

We  choose  our  objects  of  consciousness; 
that  is,  we  elect  that  plane  upon  which  w^e 
shall  dwell  in  thought.  A  sane  mind  will  tend 
to  distribute  its  energy,  ignoring  no  plane 
but  giving  most  attention  where  it  is  most 
worth  while.  As  long  as  we  have  bodies  we 
cannot  live  as  though  we  had  them  not,  but 
it  may  be  laid  down  as  a  good  rule  that  the 


The  Personal  Self  49 

pess  thought  centred  on  the  body,  the  better. 
Where  were  we  intended  to  dwell  in  thought? 
Certainly  not  like  animals  concerned  only 
with  eating  and  reproduction.  We  are  fitted 
normally  for  an  intellectual  and  spiritual 
life.  Yet  you  will  see  plenty  of  silly  people 
whose  main  object  in  life  is  to  get  fat,  or  to 
get  thin,  and  who  have  little  interest  in  any- 
thing besides  their  bodies.  We  must  rise, 
as  far  as  expedient,  above  a  purely  material 
consciousness  and  acquire  the  habit  of  dwelling 
upon  higher  planes  of  thought;  starve  out' 
false  ideas  by  giving  them  no  attention,  while  i 
we  cultivate  the  true  and  beautiful.  First 
is  the  natural  man  and  then  the  spiritual. 
There  is  always  an  evolution  going  on  in  the 
normal  mind,  a  slow  spiritualisation  of  the 
faculties,  a  tendency  towards  truth  and  away 
from  error. 

"As  a  man  thinketh  in  his  heart,  so  is  he," 
or,  more  properly,  so  is  the  self  as  known. 
The  Soul — always  the  self  as  knower — must 
of  necessity  remain  unchanged,  notwithstand- 
ing the  mutations  of  the  personal  self.  Let 
consciousness,  then,  be  centred  upon  Truth 
as  its  normal  object  of  perception,  that  it 
may  more  and  more  bring  the  truth  into 
manifestation,  and  a  sickly  or  unprofitable 


50  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

self-consciousness  be  replaced  by  a  sane 
and  wholesome  God-consciousness;  that  the 
true  self— the  free  and  perfect  Soul— may 
be  reflected  in  mind. 


CHAPTER  V 
RELIGION 

LET  us  come  directly  at  the  essence  of 
Religion,  which  is  man's  relation  to 
God — as  Ethics  is  his  relation  to  man — put- 
ting aside  that  class  of  ideas  which  has  to 
do  with  the  form  of  religion  as  foreign  to  our 
purpose.  There  is  no  possible  objection  to  the 
ceremonial,  in  so  far  as  it  is  beautiful,  but 
unless  we  have  at  the  same  time  the  realisa- 
tion of  the  presence  of  God  within  us,  the  rest 
counts  for  little.  The  point  to  be  made  is 
that,  whereas  ethics  and  morals  are  essential, 
ceremonial  may  be  beautiful,  good  music 
inspiring,  and  the  social  life  of  a  church  agree- 
able, these  things  are  not  religion  nor  are 
they  adequate  substitutes  for  it. 

Religion  with  Jesus  himself  was  not  a 
question  of  creeds  and  dogmas  at  all;  it  was 
simply  the  attainment  of  God-consciousness, 
the  realisation  of  God  within  oneself.  This 
is  the  true  inwardness  of  religion  and  it  has 


52  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

ever  been  the  religious  ideal  in  the  East. 
Now  we  have  borrowed  our  religion  from  the 
East — ^we  have  none  of  our  own — and  there- 
fore in  all  justice  to  Jesus  whom  we  regard 
as  the  founder  of  that  religion,  and  in  all 
justice  to  the  true  idea  of  religion,  let  us 
borrow  correctly  and  not  garble  and  miscon- 
strue the  teaching  of  a  man  who  saw  truth  as 
perhaps  no  other  ever  has,  the  most  spirit- 
ually awakened  man  the  world  has  known. 
The  spirit  of  these  remarks  is  not  to  be  con- 
strued as  antagonistic  to  true  Christian  ideals, 
but  rather  as  a  plea  for  a  right  interpretation 
of  the  religion  of  Jesus — a  true  conception 
of  religion  itself. 

We  are  here  concerned,  not  with  morals, 
but  with  religion,  notwithstanding  mprahty  is 
so  essential  to  a  religious  life, — is  the  con- 
comitant of  any  true  and  sane  life.  But 
mark  you,  a  system  of  morals  is  not  religion. 
The  relation  of  morality  to  religion  was 
expressed  in  the  saying,  "  The  light  of  the  body 
is  the  eye:  if,  therefore,  thine  eye  be  single,  thy 
whole  body  shall  be  full  of  light.  But  if 
thine  eye  be  evil,  thy  whole  body  shall  be 
full  of  darkness.  If,  therefore,  the  Hght  that 
is  in  thee  be  darkness,  how  great  is  that 
darkness."     In  other  words,  a  moral  defect 


Religion  53 

may  vitiate  the  whole  stream  of  consciousness. 
Immorality  implies  impurity,  selfishness,  and 
insincerity,  all  of  which  are  veils  which  prevent 
the  mind  from  perceiving  Truth. 

With  Jesus  religion  was  practical;  it  was 
not  a  matter  of  form,  for  that  was  precisely 
what  he  so  disparaged  in  the  Scribes  and 
Pharisees  of  his  time;  neither  was  it  for  set 
times  and  places — not  for  Sundays  but  for 
all  days.  He  lived  by  it,  in  short.  He  aimed 
constantly  to  bring  God  into  consciousness. 
If  we  are  to  associate  him  with  any  doctrine, 
it  is  the  glorious  truth  of  the  liberty  of  the 
Soul.  That  for  which  he  stood,  above  all, 
was  the  triumph  of  spirit  over  the  flesh. 

Here  we  have  the  essence  of  this  great  man's 
teaching,  which  was  just  that  identity  of 
the  self  as  knower  with  God,  the  Supreme 
Knower  of  the  Universe.  Ask  yourself  then, 
you  who  profess  the  religion  of  Jesus,  how 
much  does  your  religion  mean  to  you  the 
liberty  of  the  Soul,  the  triumph  of  spirit 
over  matter,  the  identity  of  the  real  man  in  you 
with  God?  How  far  have  you  brought  God 
into  consciousness  by  thinking  good  and  think- 
ing love  and  by  giving  room  only  to  these 
in  your  thoughts?  Whatever  else  religion 
may  be,  it  is  fundamentally  a  matter  of  real- 


54  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

isation,  and  only  the  truth  we  have  realised 
avails  us  at  all.  Is  our  thirst  quenched  by 
reading  about  water  or  repeating  prayers  to 
Neptune  ?  Are  we  warmed  by  singing  hymns 
to  Apollo  ?  Yet  much  of  our  religion  amounts 
to  no  more  than  this.  We  derive  no  help 
from  it  for  there  is  no  help  in  it. 

Religion  is  an  affair  of  one's  self  and  God. 
But  the  Soul  is  God  in  us;  hence  w^e  may  say 
that  religion  is  Soul-realisation  or  Self-know- 
ledge. It  should  be  the  most  vital  and  practi- 
cal relation  in  life.  Man  is  a  stream  of  which 
God  is  the  Source.  In  his  religious  life  he 
shall  keep  the  stream  open  to  that  immortal 
spring  from  which  it  comes  and  without  which 
it  would  be  nothing.  We  have  our  life  in  God 
and  life  other  than  this  there  is  none.  Only 
in  consciousness  are  we  separated  from  God, 
and  the  one  vital  thing  in  religion  is  to  bring 
ourselves  into  a  conscious  relationship  and  to 
make  that  permanent.  We  have  wisdom  and 
strength  in  proportion  as  this  is  accomplished 
in  us;  we  are  weak  and  foolish  so  long  as  it 
is  not.  For  God  is  the  only  source  of  love 
and  truth,  of  health  and  strength. 

Conventionally  we  assume  to  approach 
God  in  our  prayers,  and  these  prayers  are,  for 
the  most  part,  mere  petitions  for  something 


Religion  55 

already  latent  in  us  which  we  have  nut 
brought  into  manifestation.  All  petitions  to 
an  extra-cosmic  God  for  a  change  in  the 
established  order  of  things  are  as  vain  as  they 
are  childish.  Rather  should  we  aim  in  our 
prayers  to  get  in  harmony  with  that  order. 

What  then  is  true  prayer?  It  is  a  lifting 
up  of  the  heart  to  better  things,  if  you  wish, 
and  this  is  time  well  spent.  Prayer  in  this 
sense  is  practically  auto-suggestion,  and  when- 
ever thought  is  centred  upon  true  and  up- 
lifting ideals,  it  cannot  fail  to  be  an  efBcient 
force  in  regeneration.  It  works  either  way, 
however,  and  if  we  dwell  upon  false  concepts 
we  get  a  negative  reaction  quite  as  readily  as 
we  experience  a  positive  one  when  we  dw^ell 
upon  true  ideals.  But  more  than  this,  prayer 
— if  it  means  anything — is  the  effort  to  bring 
into  realisation  our  own  identity  with  God, 
and  in  this  the  lips  have  no  part.  It  is  to 
be  accomplished  in  silence  by  the  exclusion 
of  all  ideas  of  the  world  and  of  the  personal 
self,  and  persistent  meditation  and  concen- 
tration upon  the  reality  of  Being  and  funda- 
mental Truth  itself.  We  have  seen  that 
through  consciousness  we  cannot  know  God, 
inasmuch  as  God  is  the  subject,  never  the 
object  of  knowledge,  and  all  we  can  ever  attain 


I 


56  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

to,  in  the  nature  of  things,  by  that  process  will 
still  be  only  our  own  consciousness  of  God. 
Eastern  thinkers,  however,  have  always  main- 
tained that,  while  God  cannot  directly  be 
known  through  consciousness,  he  can  be 
known  through  super-consciousness,  that  state 
in  which  the  idea  of  the  personal  self  with  its 
limitations  is  transcended  completely  and 
the  sense  of  separateness  incidental  to  it  is 
replaced  by  the  spiritual  sense  of  union  with 
God.  However  that  may  be,  the  idea  has 
sufficient  ground  in  philosophy  to  make  the 
effort  worth  while,  for  it  is  surely  a  strength- 
ening and  spiritualising  process. 

But  whenever  we  dwell  upon  the  good,  the 
true,  and  the  beautiful  we  are  drawing  nearer 
to  God,  and  all  conscious  effort  in  that  direc- 
tion is  prayer.  Whatever  we  hold  in  mind 
we  tend  to  bring  into  extemalisation.  Hence 
it  is  that  thoughts  of  weakness,  of  poverty, 
of  sickness,  of  malice  are  also  prayers — ^un- 
wise prayers  which  work  us  harm.  Let  us 
have  a  care,  then,  that  we  pray  wisely.  We 
have  already  prayed  ourselves  into  much 
trouble,  and  by  reversing  the  order  and  dwell- 
ing upon  Truth  instead  of  error,  we  can 
pray  ourselves  out  again. 

The  attitude  that  Jesus  assumed  to  the 


Religion  57 

world  and  the  worldly  life,  while  doubtless 
extreme,  was  sufficiently  grounded  in  wisdom 
and  in  a  sound  philosophy  of  life  to  commend 
itself  to  us.  The  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  he 
affirmed,  is  within;  not  meat  and  drink,  but 
righteousness  and  peace.  In  other  words, 
it  is  no  more  than  a  state  of  mind  in  harmony 
with  Truth  and  Love — a  God-consciousness. 
''Except  a  man  be  bom  again,  he  cannot 
see  the  Kingdom  of  God";  again,  ''That 
which  is  born  of  the  flesh  is  flesh;  and 
that  which  is  bom  of  the  Spirit  is  spirit." 
The  worldly  mind  and  the  spiritual  mind  are 
not  in  harmony.  One  is  selfishness  and  un- 
rest, the  other,  love  and  peace;  one  is  sub- 
jection to  illusion,  the  other  the  perception 
of  Truth.  Hence  it  is  impossible  to  follow 
both  and  every  man  must  choose  for  himself 
which  he  shall  serve,  whether  God  or  Mammon, 
whether  he  shall  seek  Tmth  or  pursue  the 
phantom  world,  whether  live  from  within 
or  from  without.  The  admonition  to  lay 
not  up  where  moth  and  rust  corrupt  and  to 
labour  not  for  the  perishable,  but  for  that  which 
endures,  is  in  line  with  this  point  of  view  and 
absolutely  sound  in  principle,  though  it  may 
easily  be  exaggerated  in  application.  Where 
the  treasure  is  there  will  the  heart  be.     A 


58  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

mind  devoted  to  pleasure  or  to  money-getting 
has  no  leisure,  and  eventually  no  inclina- 
tion, for  the  consideration  of  more  profitable 
things.  The  harm  is  not  in  money,  but  the 
love  of  money  to  the  exclusion  of  all  else; 
not  in  the  world  itself,  but  in  the  deadening 
of  the  spiritual  life  in  us  by  the  acceptance 
of  false  and  worldly  ideals;  not  in  the  body, 
which  is  good  in  itself,  but  in  the  slavery 
to  the  senses,  the  degradation  of  the  mind 
which  is  the  natural  result  of  living  to  the 
body.  These  false  ways  of  living  and  think- 
ing pollute  the  stream  of  consciousness ;  there- 
fore, and  for  this  good  and  sufficient  reason, — 
**Be  not  conformed  to  this  world,  but  be  ye 
transformed  by  the  renewing  of  your  minds." 
To  live  to  the  body  is  a  living  death,  for 
there  is  no  greater  tyrant  than  a  pampered 
body.  To  live  to  the  world  is  to  invite  de- 
spair, for  there  is  no  happiness  in  the  worldly 
life.  Only  as  we  live  by  the  Spirit  shall  we 
have  peace  and  the  joy  of  the  inner  life; 
only  as  we  live  from  within,  shall  we  have  any 
measure  of  freedom. 


CHAPTER  VI 
ETHICS 

BEFORE  concluding  this  brief  survey  of 
First  Principles,  let  us  for  a  moment 
glance  at  ethical  relations.  For  it  may  be 
laid  down  as  a  basic  fact  that  we  can  have  no 
relation  with  any  other  self  which  does  not 
affect  the  nature  of  our  own  self.  Whatever 
we  think  of  others  necessarily  induces  in  us 
a  certain  state  of  mind,  and  if  our  relation  be 
selfish  or  uncharitable  we  perforce  mar  our 
own  minds  by  our  perverted  view.  If  on 
the  other  hand  it  be  kind  and  unselfish,  we 
purify  and  elevate  the  content  of  our  minds 
accordingly. 

Consciousness  is  not  absolutely  our  own;  it 
is  localised  in  us  and  receives  a  particular  stamp 
as  it  were,  but  it  is  connected  always  with 
the  race  consciousness,  as  the  water  in  a  bay, 
an  estuary,  or  a  strait  is  one  with  the  water 
in  the  sea,  though  partly  confined  and  given 
a   definite   form   by   the   shore   line.     When 

59 


6o  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

it  is  high  tide  in  the  sea,  it  is  high  tide  in  the 
bay  as  well.  Thus  in  a  measure  we  are 
always  open  to  and  influenced  by  the  world- 
thought,  the  mental  atmosphere  in  which  we 
live.  Never  are  we  wholly  independent  of  it. 
A  change  in  that  atmosphere  is  liable  to 
affect  us,  be  it  little  or  much,  according  to  the 
kind  of  influence  to  which  we  are  peculiarly 
susceptible.  Epidemics,  panics,  contagions, 
fads,  and  fashions  exert  their  power  largely 
through  this;  by  its  means  any  wave  sent  out 
may  reach  to  numbers  of  individual  minds, 
as  a  tidal  wave  having  its  origin  at  sea  may 
affect  all  the  bays  along  the  shore. 

While  we  are  subject  to  the  thought  of  the 
whole  world,  we  are  of  course  more  directly 
influenced  by  people  in  our  own  town  or  our 
own  circle;  and  when  it  comes  to  our  own 
family  and  friends  our  feelings  are  so  inter- 
woven with  theirs  that  we  are  influenced 
telepathically  by  their  moods  and  thoughts. 
We  are  never  completely  isolated  units; 
there  is  no  such  thing  as  an  absolutely  solitary 
person.  Harmony  is  the  basis  of  a  happy 
life, — Si  completely  sane  life.  W^hether  we 
consider  philosophy,  rehgion,  or  ethics, — in 
one  and  all,  harmony  is  the  end  in  view; 
in  philosophy  it  is  harmony  within  oneself, 


Ethics  6 1 

in  religion  harmony  with  God,  and  in  ethics 
a  harmonious  relationship  with  one's  fellow- 
men.  For  that  matter  health  is  harmony. 
We  may  be  said,  with  some  show  of  reason, 
to  have  a  race-self,  a  national-self,  and  a 
family-self  all  of  which  are  merely  expansions 
of  the  ego  or  social  self.  Whatever  affects 
these  must  influence  us  somew^here  on  the  con- 
fines of  consciousness, — the  border  of  the 
stream  if  not  in  its  main  currents. 

Now  the  harmony  of  a  family  is  of  course 
dependent  upon  the  attitude  of  the  several 
units  which  compose  that  body.  Perhaps 
it  will  suffice  for  our  present  purpose  if  we 
emphasise  the  psychic  nature  of  the  peculiarly 
subtle  relations  which  make  up  social  and,  in 
particular,  family  life.  The  subject  receives 
added  importance  when  we  remember  that 
what  affects  any  one  member  must  of  necessity 
affect  the  family  as  a  whole;  as  a  disturbance 
in  the  eye  lessens  the  comfort  of  the  entire 
body.  There  is,  therefore,  nothing  more  neces- 
sary in  life  than  to  do  one's  share  to- 
wards establishing  and  maintaining  harmony 
in  our  relations  with  others — and  charity 
begins  at  home.  The  basis  of  true  relation- 
ship is  love  and  considerateness ;  the  arch 
I     enemy  of  the  home — of  society  in  fact— is 

L 


62  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

selfishness  arising  from  ignorance.  For  could 
we  realise  that,  by  inexorable  laws,  every 
injury  we  do  to  another,  we  do  to  some  part 
of  ourselves  as  well;  that  every  injustice  is 
at  the  same  time  a  self-deprivation;  that  the 
quality  of  thought  we  send  out  to  others 
comes  back  to  us, — could  we  grow  wise,  in 
other  words — the  world  would  wear  a  different 
face  and  life  would  be  sweetened.  But  as  a 
fact  the  world  wears  just  such  a  face  as  we 
give  it.  To  the  cheerful  it  is  bright  and  to 
the  crabbed,  sour.  If  we  have  love  in  our 
hearts  we  attract  love.  We  radiate  those 
qualities  which  are  ascendant  in  us.  Whether 
we  speak  or  not,  our  thought  is  going  from  us 
continuously  and  others  are  receiving  those 
thoughts  like  wireless  messages. 

In  the  attempt  to  establish  harmony,  it  is 
evident  we  must  begin  with  ourselves.  For 
my  own  attitude  of  mind  is  an  incentive  or 
a  stumbling-block  to  everyone  I  meet.  They 
may  rise  superior  to  its  unrest  or  they  may 
fail  to  respond  to  its  serenity;  in  either  case 
it  is  provocative  of  one  condition  or  another 
and  the  stronger  mind,  or  the  stronger  mood, 
will  dominate.  It  is  no  more  than  reasonable 
that  we  should  endeavour  to  preserve  tranquil- 
lity in  our  own  minds,  not  alone  for  our  imme- 


Ethics  63 

diate  benefit  but  for  the  effect  it  must  have 
upon  others;  and  to  do  this  we  shall  have  to 
withstand  and  repel  the  untoward  thoughts 
of  others  as  well  as  to  guard  our  own. 

If  you  live  in  an  atmosphere  of  inharmony, 
your  mind  is  functioning  under  unfavorable 
conditions,  precisely  as  the  lungs  perform 
their  work  at  a  disadvantage  in  impure 
air.  We  normally  require  a  psychic  at- 
mosphere of  love  and  harmony,  as  we  need  a 
physical  atmosphere  of  fresh  air.  Every 
one  has  something  which  stands  to  him  as 
home,  his  own  particular  and  familiar  mental 
environment,  as  every  one  lives  in  a  house  or 
shelter  of  some  sort,  and  in  that  home  he 
spends  a  good  part  of  his  time  and  its  atmos- 
phere is  more  personal  to  him  than  is  any 
other.  Therefore  we  shall  strike  at  the  root 
of  what  we  have  to  say  on  the  relation  of 
ethics  to  our  subject  if  we  address  ourselves 
to  a  consideration  of  the  home.  If  in  your 
house  the  windows  are  kept  closed  and  the 
air  is  heavy  and  impure  you  cannot  constantly 
breathe  such  air  without  ultimately  feeHng 
its  debilitating  effect.  But  if  in  your  home 
the  mental  atmosphere  is  stale  and  heavy, 
or  electric  and  discordant,  its  effect  upon 
the  mind  and  thence  upon  the  body  is  far 


64  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

more  potent  still.  Now  home,  like  heaven, 
is  a  state  of  love  and  harmony,  and  alas !  there 
are  many  homeless  families  in  the  world; 
people  who  are  well  housed,  but  who  never 
know  that  state  wherein  unselfishness,  con- 
siderateness,  forbearance,  geniality  and  tact 
prevail.  These  homeless  ones  are  slowly 
starved  for  lack  of  spiritual  nourishment, 
or  gradually  poisoned  by  the  mental  atmos- 
phere in  which  they  live.  For  while  we  may 
withstand  inharmony  for  a  short  time,  we 
cannot  live  in  it  without  having  the  whole 
mental  life  infected;  unless  indeed  we  are 
able  to  exert  a  tremendous  force  of  love  and 
wisdom  in  self -protection.  Rest  assured  we 
can  no  more  do  without  sunshine  in  our  hearts 
than  without  sunshine  in  our  houses.  When 
we  have  not  a  home  in  the  true  sense  of  the 
word,  the  very  springs  of  social  life  are 
touched.  Before  we  lay  our  troubles  to 
the  climate,  the  coffee,  or  the  cooking, 
let  us  examine  ourselves  whether  we  have 
a  home  or  not,  and  first  as  to  whether  we 
are  doing  our  share  to  that  end.  Wher- 
ever our  emotions  enter,  the  effect  on  men- 
tal conditions  is  far  stronger.  Hence,  as 
feeling  enters  into  our  life  in  the  home 
more    than    in    other   social    relations,    the 


Ethics  65 

mental  reactions  are  more  acute  because 
more  personal. 

While  we  have  seen  to  it  that  the  house 
is  clean,  the  sanitary  conditions  good,  the 
ventilation  as  it  should  be,  let  us  survey  the 
condition  of  the  home  from  time  to  time 
with  equal  care.  First,  does  it  rest  on 
sincerity?  For  insincerity  is  a  dry  rot  which 
will  undermine  any  foundation.  Love  and 
sincerity  must  be  the  basis  of  any  true  re- 
lation and  it  were  better  to  have  no  relations 
with  people  whatever  than  to  have  insincere 
ones.  Every  insincerity  we  harbor  weakens 
the  mental  and  moral  fibre  and  will  make 
itself  known  by  inviting  negative  conditions. 
In  this,  every  man  is  his  own  friend  or  his 
own  foe. 

Without  love  and  sincerity  there  cannot 
possibly  be  harmony,  and  a  discordant  home 
is  a  house  divided  against  itself,  a  castle 
which  will  be  taken  by  every  onslaught  of 
negative  conditions  from  without.  But  a  true 
home  is  a  fortress  of  strength,  wherein  the 
several  members  are  mentally  and  morally 
invigorated  in  the  atmosphere  of  harmony 
and  love  to  cope  with  the  ignorance  and 
selfishness  of  the  world.  We  must  reaHse 
that   harmony   is   dependent   upon   psychic 


66  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

conditions  more  often  felt  than  known  and 
often  too  subtle  for  analysis.  But  if  we  are 
being  mentally  or  morally  poisoned  in  the 
home,  the  day's  work,  the  whole  life,  must  suf- 
fer. It  goes  without  saying  that  it  is  much 
easier  to  discover  and  correct  our  own  de- 
fects if  we  will  but  cease  focusing  our  thoughts 
on  the  defects  of  others.  Let  us  once  do 
this  and  look  ourselves  in  the  face  and  we 
shall  see  that  we  countenance  a  number  of 
minor  faults  which,  nevertheless,  cause  friction 
and  militate  against  that  harmony  which  it  is 
our  own  best  interest  to  preserve;  tactless- 
ness, for  instance,  inconsiderateness  in  little 
things,  foibles  and  whims,  prejudices,  vanity, 
irritability — these  are  the  microbes  in  the 
household  which  ever  and  anon  lay  us  low. 
The  critical  habit,  again,  is  fatal  to  harmoni- 
ous relations.  Let  us  agree  to  mind  our  own 
business  and  never  to  criticise  except  in  love 
and  with  the  view  of  helping  others  to  help 
themselves — simply  because  it  is  the  best  way 
to  do.  Common  sense  and  spiritual  prudence 
alike  demand  it. 

All  of  this  might  have  been  said  in  high- 
sounding  phrases,  but  we  are  here  concerned 
with  facts,  not  theories,  and  it  is  just  these 
commonplaces  of  life  which  reveal  whether 


Ethics  67 

we  have  any  ethics  worthy  the  name.  The 
home  life  is  an  expression  of  the  personal 
self, — is  a  larger  self,  which  is  peculiarly 
susceptible  to  the  relation  to  others,  but 
which  at  the  same  time  affects  every  other 
phase  of  the  personal  self.  If  we  could  estab- 
lish the  home  on  love,  sincerity,  and  truth,  so- 
cial conditions  would  take  care  of  themselves. 
We  cannot  like  everybody;  we  cannot  find 
every  one  congenial.  Social  lines  are  not 
as  arbitrary  as  they  seem,  for  people  are 
drawn  together  or  repelled  by  subtle  affini- 
ties and  repulsions,  and  naturally  segregate 
according  to  degrees  of  breeding  and  culture 
and  community  in  taste  and  opinions.  But 
we  can  do  good;  we  can  bless,  we  can  think 
no  evil,  and  it  is  with  this  that  Ethics  is 
concerned.  Love  and  service  are  normal/' 
to  Hfe.  We  have  no  true  life  without  them. 
Selfishness  and  malice  are  abnormal  and  can 
be  removed,  as  weeds  can  be  uprooted  in  a 
garden  in  order  that  the  flowers  themselves 
may  thrive  and  bloom. 

Modem  thought  has  brought  to  light  the 
importance  of  our  psychic  relations  and  em- 
phasised the  fact  that  it  is  not  only  what 
we  do  unto  others,  but  what  we  think  of  others 
that  counts.     For  as  you  think  of  others, 


68  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

such  in  part  is  the  content  of  your  own  mind, 
that  glass  through  which  you  look ;  and  as  that 
glass  is  clear  or  opaque,  in  focus  or  out  of 
focus,  so  will  the  world  appear  to  you,  and 
so  life  itself.  Now  harmony  above  all  things 
tends  to  keep  the  glass  in  focus. 


PART  II 
PRACTICAL  PSYCHOLOGY 


69 


PRACTICAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

IN  this  outline  of  practical  psychology 
the  idea  which  has  inspired  the  book^ 
namely  self-help  through  utilising  our  own 
forces,  will  be  emphasised  throughout.  *'  The 
great  thing,  then,  in  all  education,"  says 
William  James,  "is  to  make  our  nervous  sys- 
tem our  ally  instead  of  our  enemy."  Now, 
that  is  the  key-note  of  a  psychology  that  is 
to  be  of  any  use  to  us,  or  to  have  any  inter- 
est outside  of  the  lecture-room. 

The  force  and  value  of  practical  psychology 
lies  in  making  allies  of  our  faculties,  in  making 
friends  instead  of  enemies,  in  establishing  true 
and  wise  relations  in  place  of  antagonism 
with  nature  and  with  whatever  is  good  in  the 
world-thought  as  well.  Not  only  the  nerv- 
ous system  but  the  will,  the  emotions,  the 
imagination,  the  energy  of  thought  and  the 
force  of  habit  should  one  and  all  serve  us, 
should  be  our  good  allies  working  for  us  and 
not    against    us.     As    the    floods    and    the 

71 


72  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

lightning  work  us  harm,  thus  are  our  own 
forces  inimical  to  us  when  uncontrolled  or 
misdirected.  But  of  more  value  to  us  than 
running  streams  or  electric  currents  is  our 
thought-energy  when  properly  directed  and 
fully  utilised. 

We  have  it  in  our  power  to  establish  this 
general  harmony  within  ourselves,  allowing 
no  force  to  go  to  waste  and  none  to  work 
harm,  but  bringing  all  into  line  that  they 
may  function  to  the  best  advantage,  while 
we  derive  the  good  from  each  and  all.  Our 
religion  should  help  us  to  appropriate  the 
divine  energy  in  our  spiritual  life,  as  we 
appropriate  the  energy  of  the  sun  in  our 
physical  life.  Our  applied  psychology  must 
help  us  to  direct  and  utilise  the  stream  of 
consciousness  so  that  it  shall  run  our  thought- 
mill  to  good  purpose.  It  will  teach  us  to 
form  good  habits  in  place  of  bad,  to  think 
positive  and  healthy  thoughts  instead  of  sick 
and  negative  ones,  to  be  our  own  friend  in- 
stead of  our  own  enemy,  by  bringing  the  real 
man  into  consciousness. 


CHAPTER  I 
THOUGHT  AND  THE  BRAIN 

SO  much  has  been  said  of  late  on  the  subject 
of  thought-control  and  the  relation  of 
the  mind  to  the  body,  that  the  idea  has  un- 
fortunately become  rather  hackneyed — ^un- 
fortunately, for  the  simple  reason  that  our 
minds  are  so  readily  blunted  by  the  habitual 
or  familiar,  that  when  a  truth  becomes  a 
truism  it  no  longer  makes  any  impression. 
While  there  is  not  much  left  to  be  said  on  this 
subject  that  has  not  already  been  said,  we 
may  be  pardoned  for  referring  to  some  of  its 
practical  aspects. 

The  stream  of  consciousness  uses  the  brain 
as  its  instrument  and  has  been  clearly  shown 
to  model  that  organ  more  or  less  according 
to  the  nature  and  extent  of  its  activity. 
Professor  Gates  in  experimenting  with  guinea- 
pigs  by  training  one  animal  in  a  certain 
direction  and  not  the  other,  has  found  on 
examining    the  brains   of   the  two    animals, 

73 


74  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

that  the  one  whose  faculties  had  thus  been 
encouraged  showed  an  enormous  develop- 
ment in  the  corresponding  brain  area  over 
the  one  which  had  not  so  been  treated.  In 
other  words,  stimulating  the  mind  had  rap- 
idly promoted  cellular  growth  in  the  brain. 

We  have  every  reason  to  infer  that  in  this 
manner  all  areas  of  the  brain  may  be  developed 
by  persistent  thought  through  channels  which 
use  these  particular  areas.  Thus  an  artist,  a 
linguist,  a  mathematician,  each  tends  by  the 
exercise  of  his  profession  to  develop  certain 
areas  above  others.  A  thoroughly  well  culti- 
vated mind  must  tend  to  increase  all  brain- 
areas  more  or  less;  a  well  balanced  mind  will 
cultivate  no  one  at  the  expense  of  others; 
while  an  unbalanced  person  has  either  culti- 
vated one  area  out  of  all  proportion  to  the  rest, 
or  failed  wholly  with  regard  to  some  which 
are  essential  to  normal  thinking.  The  fact  is, 
we  develop  our  brains  through  thinking,  very 
much  as  we  perfect  our  muscular  system 
through  exercise. 

Doubtless  the  most  important  discovery  of 
psycho-physiology  is  the  fact  that,  whereas 
the  sense  areas  of  the  brain  are  congenital, 
the  ''thinking"  areas  are  acquired.  Huxley 
has  shown  that  the  brains  of  an  infant  and 


Thought  and  the  Brain  75 

of  a  chimpanzee  are  practically  identical. 
Man,  however,  proceeds  from  infancy  to 
create  centres  in  his  brain  by  his  social,  in- 
tellectual and  emotional  life,  while  the  brain  of 
the  ape  remains  unchanged.  Man  then,  does 
not  receive  these  centres  ready-made,  but 
creates  them  through  the  quality  and  direction 
of  his  thought.  He  may  inherit  a  talent, 
but  he  does  not  inherit  the  brain  to  go  with  it ; 
for  this  he  must  mould  to  suit  his  purpose,  as  a 
potter  fashions  the  clay.  We  have  long  known 
that  faculties  grow  through  use,  but  only 
recently  has  it  been  understood  that  by  their 
use  we  were  actually  fashioning  a  brain  to 
further  that  expression,  as  a  gymnast  develops 
a  body  to  suit  his  particular  needs. 

The  brain  is  a  paired  organ;  that  is  to  say, 
we  really  have  two  brains,  and  it  is  a  curious 
fact  that  these  ''  thinking  "  areas,  including  the 
speech  centre,  are  developed  in  one  brain 
only,  normally  in  the  left  hemisphere.  Around 
the  centres  of  sight  and  hearing  with  which  we 
were  bom,  we  create  and  develop  others — a 
reading  centre,  for  instance,  and  a  music  centre. 
Now  if  an  injury  to  the  brain  should  destroy 
the  music  centre  while  leaving  the  centre  of 
hearing  intact,  as  has  been  known  to  happen, 
we  still  might  hear  our  best-beloved  airs,  but 


76  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

without  being  able  to  understand  or  enjoy 
them.  As  the  acquired  centres  have  been 
created  in  only  one  hemisphere — usually  the 
left — if  the  right  brain  be  destroyed  and  the 
left  remain  unimpaired,  we  may  still  read 
and  enjoy  music  as  before,  and  a  case  of  this 
kind  has  occurred.  If  on  the  other  hand  a 
particular  centre  is  injured  in  the  left  brain — 
or  speaking  brain  as  it  is  known — that  centre 
may  possibly  be  developed  in  the  right 
hemisphere.  If  the  reading  centre,  for  in- 
stance, be  destroyed,  the  patient  must  learn 
to  read  over  again,  precisely  as  he  did  when  a 
child,  and  little  by  little  create  in  his  right 
hemisphere  another  reading  centre. 

Such  are  some  of  the  facts  adduced  after 
long  and  patient  investigation  in  a  difficult 
field  by  students  of  the  brain.  Dr.  Thomp- 
son compares  an  acquired  centre  to  a  shelf 
upon  which,  in  the  process  of  development, 
we  place  book  after  book.  In  view  of  these 
facts,  the  materialistic  assumption  that  the 
brain  secretes  thought,  as  the  liver  secretes 
bile,  is  more  absurd  than  ever.  The  mind 
builds  the  brain  by  the  extent  and  quality 
of  its  activity.  This  is  done  largely  in  the 
plastic  years.  In  youth  we  elect  what  sort 
of  a  brain  we  shall  have  for  use  in  subsequent 


Thought  and  the  Brain  77 

years.  Early  interest  in  music,  literature,  and 
art  fashions  a  brain  which  will  react  more 
readily  under  stimuli  of  that  nature  through- 
out life.  Early  habits  of  right-thinking  estab- 
lish neural  paths  through  which  thought  will 
tend  to  flow  ever  after.  Btit  we  are  always 
modifying  our  brains  by  the  character  of  our 
thought.  It  is  more  difficult  in  middle  Hfe 
than  in  youth,  simply  because  we  tend  to  react 
along  paths  already  established  in  the  brain, 
as  we  incline  to  follow  beaten  paths  in  the 
woods.  This  difficulty  has  doubtless  been 
exaggerated.  With  systematic  auto-sugges- 
tion and  the  larger  comprehension  of  the 
mental  action  which  is  now  possible,  we  may 
accomplish  much  that  has  heretofore  seemed 
impossible.  In  fact  where  shall  we  draw  the 
line?  No  one  knows  what  he  can  do  until  he 
has  tried,  and  each  success,  each  victory,  and 
every  addition  of  knowledge,  fits  us  for  a 
greater  victory. 

The  practical  bearing  of  the  foregoing  re- 
marks must  be  obvious  to  the  reader,  and  it 
will  be  doubly  so  when  we  come  to  consider 
the  nervous  system  in  relation  to  thought. 
We  are  creating  our  brains,  just  as  if  we  were 
to  fashion  a  violin  upon  which  to  play,  and 
unless  we  have  made  a  good  instrument  we 


78  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

cannot  hope  to  give  a  very  good  performance 
in  life.  The  gist  of  the  matter  is  that  we — 
the  personal  self,  that  is — fashion  the  instru- 
ment, we  keep  it  in  tune  or  out  of  tune,  we 
make  of  it  a  first-class  instrument  or  a  poor 
one,  and  meanwhile  we  have  to  saw  away 
on  it  the  best  we  can.  If  the  result  is  some- 
times hard  on  our  friends,  let  us  in  all  decency 
improve  matters,  for  we  have  it  within  our 
power  to  do  so. 

We  need,  however,  give  little  further  heed 
to  the  instrument,  but  concern  ourselves  rather 
with  that  force  which  fashions  the  instru- 
ment, namely  Thought.  The  fact  to  be  borne 
in  mind  with  reference  to  the  brain  is  that  it 
always  tends  to  react  along  established  paths, 
and  therefore  by  wrong  habits  of  thought  we 
make  it  increasingly  difficult  for  ourselves 
to  think  clearly.  Beliefs  and  prejudices  long 
entertained  have  lent  their  impressions  to  the 
brain ;  therefore  the  sooner  we  begin  to  elimi- 
nate them,  the  better. 

In  comparing  the  brain  to  an  instrument 
we  must,  however,  remember  that  the  player 
works  from  within.  Harmony  of  mind  tends 
to  produce  a  normal  and  harmonious  instru- 
ment. It  is  for  us  to  keep  ourselves  in  har- 
mony, then,  and  the  brain  will  take  care  of 


Thought  and  the  Brain  79 

itself.  To  do  this,  however,  involves  the 
various  relations  of  life,  and  none  more  than 
the  ethical  relations.  In  the  next  chapter  we 
shall  see  how  the  mental  states  affect  the 
body  through  the  nervous  system.  For  the 
present,  let  us  consider  merely  the  influence 
of  the  quality  of  thought  upon  the  mind 
itself,  remembering  that  it  is  the  persistent 
habits  of  thought  which  model  the  brain. 
Consciousness,  as  we  have  seen,  is  a  flow- 
ing stream.  The  mind  constantly  generates 
thought-energy.  Much  of  this  energy  goes 
to  waste.  Much  is  misdirected  and  works 
harm.  Looked  at  in  this  light,  the  propriety 
of  harnessing  and  directing  that  thought- 
energy  at  once  appeals  to  our  common  sense. 
This  is  the  first  step  in  self-help.  Your  mind 
is  your  own;  you  are  liberating  this  energy, 
and  yet  you  have  been  wasting  and  misdi- 
recting it  for  years  to  your  own  harm.  Now 
you  are  to  take  control  and  make  this  energy 
serve  your  purpose. 

It  has  been  the  same  with  the  forces 
of  Nature.  How  long  did  electrical  energy, 
gravity,  and  water-power  go  unharnessed! 
Yet  now  they  serve  us  admirably.  We  were 
not  able  to  utilise  them,  however,  until  we 
not   only   had   discovered   the   fundamental 


8o  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

laws  of  motion,  of  hydraulics,  of  mechanics, 
and  so  on,  but  their  application  as  well, 
and  this  came  much  later.  Similarly,  in 
psychology  it  has  long  been  known  that  con- 
sciousness is  motor  in  its  effect,  but  it  is 
only  recently  that  we  have  fully  realised  the 
practical  bearing  of  this  important  fact  and 
begun  to  apply  it  in  Suggestion.  This  is  a 
practical  age,  and  while  Poetry  and  Art  suffer 
because  of  this  modem  utilitarianism,  the 
Sciences  have  gained  by  it;  and  none  more 
than  psychology,  for  psychology  is  of  little  use 
unless  it  is  practical. 

As  a  machine  must  be  devised  with  reference 
to  the  laws  of  motion  and  of  mechanics  if 
it  is  to  utilise  the  energy  suppHed  to  it, 
so  must  we  devise  and  control  our  thought- 
energy  with  reference  to  fundamental  laws 
of  Thought  if  we  are  to  use  that  energy 
to  advantage.  If  a  machine  is  not  properly 
constructed  or  placed,  not  only  will  it  not 
do  its  work,  but  it  will  throw  itself  out  of  gear. 
Now  this  is  just  what  happens  with  a  wrongly 
directed  mind;  it  does  poor  work  and  throws 
the  nervous  system  out  of  order.  There  is  a 
normal  way  of  thinking,  a  normal  attitude 
towards  the  different  relations  of  life,  which 
we  have  briefly  reviewed  in  Part  I.     In  regard 


Thought  and  the  Brain  8i 

to  some  of  these  we  are  wofuUy  ignorant; 
in  others  we  know  much  better  than  we  do, 
but  in  either  case  we  always  experience  the 
result  of  wrong  thinking  whether  we  knew 
better  or  did  not.  If  you  handle  your 
automobile  ignorantly  or  carelessly  you  may 
break  the  machine  or  you  may  yourself 
be  injured ;  what  you  suffer  is  not  a  penalty, 
but  merely  the  result  of  your  act.  It  may 
serve  to  teach,  however,  the  proper  way  to 
manage  the  machine. 

We  know  fairly  well  what  our  attitude 
to  one  another  should  be  and  on  the  whole 
we  endeavour  to  maintain  it — outside  of  war 
and  business — for  man  inclines  more  naturally 
to  kindness  than  the  reverse.  We  fail  to  real- 
ise how  subtle  that  relation  is,  however;  that 
our  thoughts  of  people  count  for  or  against 
our  peace  of  mind  as  well.  We  may  fool 
other  people,  but  we  do  not  so  often  deceive 
ourselves  and  w^e  never  deceive  our  brains. 
We  may  pretend  to  anything  we  wish,  but 
all  the  time  our  real  motives  are  moulding  our 
brains  and  establishing  neural  paths  quite 
at  variance  with  our  pretensions.  The  normal 
attitude  to  our  fellow-men  is  love,  kindness, 
and  forbearance — forbearance,  because  if  we 
understood  the  conditions  which  have  made 


82  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

them  what  they  are  we  should  no  longer  be 
inclined  to  judge.  All  we  can  hope  to  do  is 
to  maintain  our  own  minds  in  harmony  with 
this  fact  and  to  radiate  this  quality  of  thought. 
If  we  cannot  get  on  with  some  people  we  can 
let  them  alone,  but  in  any  case  we  must 
still  aim  to  keep  in  harmony  with  the  normal 
relation.  What  others  do  is  their  concern. 
If  they  fail  they  must  get  the  results  of  their 
mistakes.  But  in  so  far  as  we  preserve  the 
integrity  of  our  own  minds  and  hearts,  we 
help  others  to  do  the  same,  for  love  and  good- 
will are  contagious.  The  quality  of  thought 
we  send  out  to  people  is  very  apt  to  be  returned 
to  us,  considerateness  for  considerateness, 
antagonism  for  antagonism.  We  are  social 
beings,  and  of  all  our  relations  in  life  the 
social  is  uppermost  in  consciousness  and  is 
more  involved  with  the  emotions.  Hence 
the  states  of  mind  which  it  induces  are  more 
active  in  influence  for  good  or  harm.  Love  is 
the  great  norm  of  human  life,  and  wherever 
consciousness  is  at  variance  with  this  it  is 
temporarily  abnormal.  It  is  as  fundamental 
to  a  balanced  mind  as  the  laws  of  motion  to  a 
machine.  Our  thinking,  our  living,  amounts 
to  little  in  the  end  if  we  have  not  love  in  our 
hearts. 


Thought  and  the  Brain  83 

Similarly  we  may  say  there  is  a  normal 
attitude  towards  God  and  towards  life  itself, 
and  the  philosophy  of  life  is  to  discover  and 
maintain  this  in  consciousness.  For  whenever 
we  fail  to  do  so,  the  mental  reactions  are 
discordant  and,  persisted  in,  develop  some 
kinks  in  the  brain  which  make  it  easy  to 
react  that  way  in  future.  The  normal  attitude 
to  God  is  love  and  trust,  and,  more  than  this, 
the  effort  to  realise  God  within  ourselves. 
For,  as  we  have  seen,  the  self  as  knower — the 
Soul — ^being  in  fact  God  within  us,  we  are 
separated  from  Him  only  in  consciousness, 
and  it  is  in  consciousness  we  must  bridge  that 
apparent  gulf  and  replace  that  sense  of 
separateness  with  an  overwhelming  realisation 
of  the  immanence  of  God — God  the  Absolute 
Love  and  Truth,  whose  energy  we  should 
normally  appropriate  in  our  Hves.  This,  at  the 
same  time,  amounts  to  bringing  the  real  and 
unchangeable  man  into  expression. 

Towards  nature,  the  normal  attitude  is  by 
all  means  a  friendly  one,  for,  as  we  shall  see 
when  we  come  to  consider  the  subject  of 
Belief,  the  attitude  towards  any  object  reacts 
upon  us,  though  the  idea  in  mind  be  entirely 
false.  Make  friends  in  nature,  then;  make 
friends  of  mankind,   a   friend  of  God.     Go 


84  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

with  the  current  by  assuming  the  normal 
attitude  toward  all  things.  Make  friends  of 
the  air  and  water,  of  heat  and  cold,  of  food 
and  drink,  for  you  do  not  fear  your  friend. 
Every  fear  in  your  mind  works  you  harm,  but 
your  friends  rally  to  your  support;  love  works 
for  you  always. 

First  and  last  be  your  own  friend,  for  if 
you  have  not  harmony  within  you  are  a  house 
divided  against  itself.  Consider  well  the 
nature  of  the  personal  self — that  multitude 
of  ephemeral  and  shadowy  persons  whom 
we  galvanise  into  apparent  life  by  the  energy 
of  thought,  only  to  let  them  fade  away  into 
nothingness — ^and  learn  to  distinguish  it  from 
the  true  self,  the  wise  and  unfettered  Soul 
which  is  God  within  you,  unchanging  and 
unchangeable.  Deathless,  diseaseless,  age- 
less, untroubled  in  a  world  of  sorrow — it  is 
to  the  Soul  you  shall  turn  as  to  your  refuge 
and  your  strength,  to  that  you  shall  cling 
as  to  the  Rock  of  Ages.  It  is  merely  a  habit 
that  we  identify  ourselves  always  with  the 
flowing  stream  of  consciousness.  Let  us  now 
substitute  the  habit  of  identifying  ourselves 
with  that  alone  which  is  not  subject  to  fear — 
the  immortal  Soul. 

Aim  to  preserve  your  mental  states  always 


Thought  and  the  Brain  85 

in  harmony  with  this  inner  model  of  love, 
wisdom,  and  strength.  Let  all  your  concepts 
be  in  line  with  it,  and  whatever  is  alien  to  it 
exclude  from  your  consciousness.  Post,  as 
it  were,  a  guard  at  the  door  of  the  mind  and 
examine  every  thought  which  applies  for 
admittance,  whether  it  be  in  accord  with  the 
good  government  of  the  mind  or  antagonistic 
to  it,  in  which  case  eject  it  summarily.  In 
good  time,  if  this  vigorous  inspection  be 
established,  these  anarchists  of  the  mind  will 
no  longer  apply  for  admission.  But  once 
you  let  them  in,  they  will  by  their  very 
nature  make  trouble  till  you  get  them  out 
again. 

Every  thought  of  fear,  or  of  selfishness — 
in  any  one  of  their  many  guises — separates 
us  that  much  in  consciousness  from  God,  the 
absolute  Truth,  and  by  each  separation 
we  are  weakened,  for  God  is  the  one  Source 
of  life  and  strength.  But  every  true  concept, 
every  thought  of  love,  draws  us  nearer  to 
God  by  bringing  love  and  truth  into  conscious- 
ness and  thus  strengthens  and  fortifies  us. 

The  Science  of  the  Mind,  reduced  to  its 
simplest  terms,  is  the  perception  of  normal 
attitudes  in  the  several  relations  of  life  and 
the  practice  of  right-thinking,  that  normal  re- 


86  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

actions  in  mind  and  body  shall  be  encouraged 
and  unfavourable  reactions  be  inhibited.  The 
necessity  for  this  will  more  fully  appear  when 
we  turn  our  attention  to  the  relation  of 
thought  to  the  nervous  system. 


CHAPTER  II 
THOUGHT  AND  THE  NERVOUS  SYSTEM 

THE  nervous  system  is  but  the  extension 
of  brain  material  to  a  distance  from 
the  main  centres,  or  more  correctly,  the 
brain  is  but  the  culmination  of  the  nervous 
system.  For  in  the  course  of  evolution  there 
were  nervous  systems  long  before  there  were 
brains.  The  spinal  cord  with  its  various  cen- 
tres is  a  sort  of  brain — an  automatic  brain, 
acting  Hke  a  switch-board — ^but  not  a  thinking 
brain.  From  these  centres  or  sub-stations, 
nerves  radiate  to  the  several  organs,  automati- 
cally enabling  them  to  function.  With  the 
lower  orders  of  animals  such  an  arrangement 
is  all  they  need  for  their  uncomplicated  ex- 
istence with  its  simple  reactions,  for  their 
acts  are  all  reflexive  or  automatic.  A  nervous 
system  is  sufficient  for  a  wholly  automatic 
existence.  As  they  ascend  the  scale  the  brain 
gradually  develops,  playing  at  first  but  a  small 
part  in  the  nervous  economy  of  the  animal 

87 


88  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

In  man  the  nervous  system  takes  much  the 
same  part  that  it  does  in  the  lower  animal,  but 
in  place  of  being  wholly  automatic  it  is  under 
the  supervision  of  a  thinking  brain  and — as 
we  shall  presently  see — ^whether  this  is  an 
advantage  or  a  disadvantage  depends  largely 
upon  the  kind  of  thinking  that  is  done.  A 
spinal  centre  left  to  itself  automatically  works 
the  organs  under  its  control.  But  from  the 
brain  come  nerves  to  each  centre  which  carry 
messages  from  head-quarters,  relevant  or  irrele- 
vant to  the  nature  of  that  particular  centre's 
activities.  Thus  the  nerves  whose  office  is  to 
operate  the  heart,  we  will  say,  have  nothing 
to  do  with  things  outside  of  their  own  sphere. 
Nerves  from  the  thinking  brain,  however, 
bring  a  current  to  that  centre,  the  result  of 
some  thought  process  wholly  foreign  to 
the  heart  or  its  action,  and  the  condition 
of  the  heart  is  at  once  influenced  by  the  effect 
of  that  message  upon  the  motor  centre.  We 
are  therefore  less  concerned  here  with  these 
automatic  centres  than  with  the  nerves 
which  convey  currents  induced  by  thoughts 
and  feelings  through  the  brain,  and  we 
shall  confine  our  attention  principally  to 
those  thoughts  and  feelings  themselves. 
For    nerves    are    merely    the    wires    which 


Thought  and  the  Nervous  System   89 

convey  messages  or  which  open  and  close 
switches. 

As  far  as  the  physical  man  is  concerned, 
however,  we  may  regard  him  as  merely  a 
nervous  system,  for  no  muscle  or  organ 
operates  itself,  but  all  are  operated  by 
the  controlling  nerves.  Whatever  influences 
the  action  of  the  nerve,  then,  must  affect  the 
organ.  Now  this  is  just  what  happens  with 
all  organs,  though  it  is  obvious  only  in  par- 
ticular instances.  Fright,  for  example,  is  an 
emotion  which  sends  a  peculiar  current  to  the 
heart  centre,  preventing  the  automatic  nerves 
from  working  in  the  normal  way,  and  thus 
either  retarding  or  accelerating  the  action 
of  that  organ.  In  this  manner  the  heart's 
action  may  be  stopped  entirely  and  this  in  all 
probability  has  not  infrequently  happened. 

Nerves  which  ramify  throughout  the  arter- 
ies, contract  or  enlarge  these  vessels  and,  while 
perhaps  originally  wholly  automatic  in  their 
action,  they  are  now,  at  any  rate,  interfered 
with  by  every  passing  emotion,  so  that  the 
mere  sight  of  a  spider  on  the  coat-sleeve 
will  in  some  persons  affect  the  distribution 
of  the  circulation.  Self -consciousness,  anger, 
fear  become  evident  in  changing  the  pressure 
of  blood  to  the  face.     To  produce  a  flush  or  a 


Qo  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

pallor,  however,  they  must  first  have  influ- 
enced the  action  of  the  viscera.  That  is,  a 
thought  has  this  motor  consequence  and  the 
nerves  are  the  means  which  have  made  such 
a  result  possible,  we  may  say  inevitable. 

It  has  been  found  that  by  placing  the  arm 
in  a  vessel  of  water  full  to  the  brim  and  then 
concentrating  the  thought  upon  that  member, 
the  circulation  would  so  increase  that  the 
arm  would  swell,  which  was  at  once  indicated 
by  the  water  overflowing.  Professor  Gates 
has  ascertained  by  experiment  that,  by  apply- 
ing suitable  reagents  to  the  blood,  a  reaction 
was  obtained  from  the  blood  taken  from  a 
person  in  anger  different  from  the  reaction 
when  the  blood  was  taken  from  one  in  some 
other  mood.  In  fact  an  acid  of  a  poisonous 
character  had  been  produced  by  the  state  of 
anger.  Under  similar  conditions  the  breath 
has  been  analysed  and  found  to  vary  with 
the  emotions.  There  is  reason  to  suppose 
that  the  secretions  and  the  perspiration  are 
similarly  affected.  From  so  pertinent  a 
fact  we  can  hardly  fail  to  draw  the  obvious 
deductions.  It  serves  as  much  as  any  fact 
can  to  emphasise  the  exceedingly  intimate 
nature  of  that  relation  which  obtains  between 
thought   and   the  nervous   system;   that   is, 


Thought  and  the  Nervous  System  91 

the  relation  of  mind  and  body.  The  bladder, 
the  bowels,  and  the  stomach  are  apparently 
as  sensitive  as  the  heart  to  nervous  reactions 
through  thought  stimulus. 

It  is  evident  that  if  a  temporary  mood,  as 
of  anger  or  of  fear,  produces  a  nervous  reaction 
and  a  temporary  physical  change,  a  per- 
sistent mood — an  habitual  state  of  irritabihty 
or  fear — must  perpetuate  this  in  the  body 
until  that  class  of  nervous  reactions  becomes 
usual  and  a  changed  action  of  the  viscera  and 
a  different  condition  of  the  blood  are  the  re- 
sult. As  all  consciousness  is  motor,  every  state 
of  mind  must  outwardly  picture  itself  in  the 
body.  In  fact,  as  we  have  seen  in  considering 
First  Principles,  the  body  has  no  life  apart 
from  the  mind;  it  is  the  visible  and  material 
effect  of  an  invisible  and  mental  cause,  and 
all  its  activities  vary  from  moment  to  mo- 
ment as  the  nervous  reactions  are  affected  by 
the  fluctuations  in  the  thought  current. 

While  organic  functions  are  thus  responsive 
to  neural  conditions,  the  nervous  system  itself, 
unlike  telephone  wires,  must  be  somewhat 
affected  by  the  quality  of  the  currents  which 
pass  through  it.  Nerves  wear  out,  so  to 
speak,  by  being  overused  by  currents  of  fear 
or  excitabihty,  as  does  a  piano  wire  by  the 


92  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

constant   hammering   on   a   particular   note. 
In  the  general  excitement  of  this  age  and  the 
intensity  of  life,  the  nerves  of  a  whole  people 
are  constantly   keyed  up,  and  the  result   is 
the  prevalence  of  nervous  disorders  and  the 
almost  universal  tendency  to  nervous  deple- 
tion.    The   common   state   of   mind    to-day 
is   one   of   over-stimulation   and   consequent 
depression.     The  remedy  is  repose,  relaxation, 
recreation,    instead   of   which   the   tendency 
is  to  further  excite  and  stimulate.     As  far 
as  we  are  physically  concerned  nothing  can  be 
more  essential  than  a  sound  nervous  system, 
which  is  far  more  to  be  desired  than  muscvilar 
development.     Mental  strain  and  excitement, 
insufficient   repose,   and   immoderate  use    of 
stimulants  all  conspire  to  deprive  us  of  this. 
But  the  chief  enemy  of  the  nervous  system 
is  misdirected  or  uncontrolled  thought.     The 
association  between   a   mental  state   and   a 
nervous  reaction  is  so  close  that  they  may  be 
considered  as  practically  one,  like  water  and 
ice  or  vapour  and  cloud.      ''All  mental  states 
(no  matter  what  their  character  as  regards 
utility    may    be),"    says    Professor   James, 
''  are  followed  by  bodily  activity  of  some  sort. 
They  lead  to  inconspicuous  changes  in  breath- 
ing,   circulation,    general    muscular    tension, 


Thought  and  the  Nervous  System   93 

and  glandular  or  other  visceral  activity, 
even  if  they  do  not  lead  to  conspicuous 
movements  of  the  muscles  of  voluntary  life. 
Not  only  certain  particular  states  of  mind, 
then  (such  as  those  called  volitions,  for  ex- 
ample), but  states  of  mind  as  such,  all  states 
of  mind,  even  mere  thoughts  and  feelings, 
are  motor  in  their  consequences."  We  may 
set  it  down  as  one  of  the  fundamental  facts 
of  psychology  that  wherever  the  normal  atti- 
tude in  any  of  the  relations  of  life  is  not  main- 
tained, the  attendant  nervous  reaction  will 
disturb  the  health  of  the  body  and  of  the 
nervous  system  itself. 

To  be  "nervous"  is  to  fail  in  some  essential 
of  self-control.  But  it  must  be  granted  that 
the  condition  of  the  body  reacts  upon  the 
mind,  just  as  truly  as  the  state  of  mind  in- 
fluences the  body.  Let  this  fact,  however, 
be  understood,  not  misunderstood,  as  are  so 
many  facts  wherever  they  seem  to  prove 
something  which  we  want  to  have  true.  Thus 
it  were  more  accurate  to  say  in  this  connection 
that  the  mind,  taking  cognizance  of  a  bodily 
condition,  reacts  upon  itself.  And  this  it 
does  not  only  with  reference  to  our  bodies, 
but  our  clothes  as  well.  If  I  feel  nervous 
because  you  drum  with  your  feet,  it  is  not 


94  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

your  drumming  which  really  fusses  me,  but 
my  feeling  about  your  drumming.  While 
the  drumming  is  the  occasion,  it  is  my 
dislike  of  drumming  which  causes  my  irritable 
state,  and  it  is  this  irritable  state  which 
translates  itself  into  nervousness.  This  is 
a  very  small  matter  in  itself,  yet  if  I  foster 
rather  than  overcome  a  sensitiveness  to 
drumming  and  a  hundred  other  trifles  of  this 
nature,  the  result  is  increased  susceptibility — 
nervousness,  that  is, — ^until  neural  paths  are 
formed  and  the  nervous  mechanism  reacts  ap- 
parently without  any  intervening  conscious- 
ness of  dislike. 

One  may  not  be  able  to  stop  the  drumming, 
and  even  so  would  still  remain  susceptible 
to  every  other  annoyance;  but  if  by  self- 
control  we  overcome  susceptibility,  the  cause 
is  banished  which  gave  rise  to  the  unpleasant 
reactions.  Though  the  occasion  should  still 
persist  it  no  longer  produces  a  reaction. 
Here  we  have  the  cause  and  the  cure  for  incip- 
ient nervous  disorder.  Allowed  to  become 
habitual,  however,  the  chronic  disestse  of  mind 
records  itself  in  chronic  disease  of  the  nerves; 
for,  as  we  have  seen,  a  mental  state  and  its 
nervous  reaction  are  practically  one  and  the 
same. 


Thought  and  the  Nervous  System   95 

Let  a  discordant  mental  state  produce  some 
bodily  disorder  and  this  reacts  again  upon  the 
consciousness  of  self  to  further  depress  the 
mind.  The  body,  inert  in  itself,  thus  exerts 
a  power  of  suggestion  over  the  mind.  It 
were  foolish  to  ignore  this  fact,  for  any  inani- 
mate object  may  do  this.  Thus  the  sight  of 
food  or  of  a  bottle  may  suggest  to  us  the  act 
of  eating  and  drinking  and  we  may  at  once 
feel  hungry  and  thirsty  though  we  had  not 
thought  of  this  a  moment  before.  A  cigar 
suggests  that  we  smoke,  a  stream  that  we  fish 
or  bathe,  a  book  that  we  read.  It  must  be 
remembered,  however,  that  these  objects  do 
not  act  of  themselves,  but  are  merely  the 
occasions  of  the  reaction  in  the  mind  of  the 
beholder.  It  is  the  perception,  or  properly 
the  apperception,  of  the  object  which  through 
suggestion  induces  a  particular  state  of  mind. 

While  mind  and  body  may  thus  be  said  to 
react  upon  each  other,  sensation  no  less  than 
feeling  is  purely  a  mental  state.  The  body 
cannot  feel,  but  it  induces  sensation  in  the 
mind.  As  far  as  this  life  is  concerned,  mind 
and  body  are  inseparable.  The  one  im- 
portant truth  in  this  connection  to  which  the 
New  Thought  movement,  and  for  that  matter 
any   spiritual   philosophy,    is   committed,    is 


96  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

that  the  mind,  not  the  body,  feels  and  acts, 
and  the  mind  should  rule  the  body  rather  than 
the  body  the  mind.  To  be  a  slave  to  sensa- 
tion is  to  be  in  bondage  to  those  states  of 
mind  which  the  body  induces  by  suggestion, 
and  this  means  the  same  thing  as  bondage  to 
the  body  itself — a  degradation  of  consciousness 
from  which  the  New  Thought  is  but  one  of 
those  many  spiritual  reactions  which  have 
taken  place  in  the  history  of  philosophy. 

That  the  mind  should  rule  the  body  by 
making  sensation  subject  to  reason  and  will, 
is  the  normal  attitude.  But  as  far  as  the 
direct  relation  of  mind  and  body  is  concerned, 
wisdom  lies  in  taking  the  mind  off  the  body 
as  far  as  expedient.  The  less  thought  is 
centred  on  the  body,  the  more  freedom  have 
the  automatic  centres  to  do  their  work  in 
accordance  with  that  universal  mind  we  call 
Nature.  Our  little  minds  obstruct  and  inter- 
fere and  the  result  is  apt  to  be  discordant 
nervous  reactions.  Keep  the  mind  pure,  free, 
and  tranquil,  let  it  be  dominated  by  love 
and  truth,  and  the  body  will  apparently 
take  care  of  itself. 

With  equal  reason  may  it  be  urged — keep 
the  thought  off  the  personality  as  a  whole. 
Do  not  let  the  mind  sink  into  itself,  for  the 


Thought  and  the  Nervous  System   97 

self-centred  state  is  an  abnormal  attitude 
and  always  a  precursor  of  mental  and  physical 
inharmony.  A  large  class  of  invalids  could 
be  cured  by  simply  diverting  their  attention 
from  themselves,  for  as  a  matter  of  fact  their 
disease  consists  in  being  self-centred.  They 
are  like  people  who  should  stick  their  fingers 
into  their  eyes  and  complain  of  the  irritation. 
All  they  have  to  do  is  to  take  their  fingers 
out  of  their  eyes.  This  may  not  be  so  simple 
as  it  appears,  for  such  people  are  in  a  measure 
self -hypnotised,  that  is,  they  are  psychologised 
by  a  fixed  idea.  The  best  method  of  dehyp- 
notisation  is  to  think  of  some  one  else  and  the 
joys  and  sorrows  of  others.  Do  good!  For- 
get yourself!  Take  an  active  interest  in 
helping  some  one  else,  and  as  you  do  this  you 
are  at  the  same  time  becoming  your  own  friend 
and  making  an  ally  of  your  nervous  system. 

While  right-thinking  of  necessity  involves 
some  attention  to  self,  it  is  better  accomplished 
by  regular  discipline  each  day  in  meditation 
and  concentration  of  thought  than  in  constant 
self-watchfulness,  which  becomes  too  intro- 
spective and  tends  to  paralyse  the  mental 
processes;  discipline,  that  is,  with  a  view  of 
forming  the  habit  of  right-thinking,  for  habit, 
as  we  shall  see,  may  be  our  best  ally. 

7 


98  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

Incoming  currents  reach  the  brain  through 
the  afferent  nerves  and  are  known  collectively 
as  the  afferent.  Received  in  a  centre,  they 
result  in  an  outgoing  current  or  nervous  dis- 
charge through  the  efferent.  The  relation  of 
the  afferent  and  efferent  to  our  general  sub- 
ject, however,  can  better  be  considered  under 
the  Will  and  is  reserved  for  that  chapter. 


CHAPTER  III 
HABIT 

THE  substance  of  the  preceding  chapter 
reveals  how  closely  habit  is  associated 
with  the  nervous  system,  for  as  habits  are 
merely  fixed  ways  of  thinking,  they  must  re- 
sult in  fixed  nervous  reactions  and  in  time 
these  reactions  must  induce  the  corresponding 
modes  of  thought.  In  fact,  habit  and  the 
nervous  system  are  insolubly  bound  together. 
As  we  wear  trails  by  taking  always  one 
course  through  the  woods,  so  we  establish 
neural  paths  by  fixed  modes  of  thinking.  As 
every  one  knows,  the  feet  seem  instinctively 
to  get  into  the  old  trail,  while  it  requires  an 
effort  to  break  out  a  new  path.  It  is  next 
to  impossible  to  keep  an  old  trail-horse  out  of 
the  ruts,  though  the  travelling  may  be  much 
better  one  side  or  the  other  of  the  trail.  Now 
neural  paths  have  just  this  effect  upon  the 
stream  of  consciousness,  affording  directions 
of  least  resistance  through  which  it  may  flow. 

99 


loo  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

A  beaten  path  suggests  to  us  that  we  follow 
it,  whereas  otherwise  it  might  never  occur  to 
us  to  go  in  that  direction  at  all. 

Almost  everything  we  do,  from  wearing 
clothes  and  cooking  our  food  to  reading  books 
or  controlling  our  thoughts,  is  a  matter  of 
habit.  One  becomes  dependent  upon  smoking 
or  drinking;  stop  either  for  a  while  and  the 
very  taste  for  these  disappears.  Whatever 
we  do  often,  we  incline  to  do  more;  whatever 
we  desist  from,  we  have,  as  time  goes  on,  less 
and  less  inclination  for.  We  have  no  better 
friends  than  good  habits  and  no  greater  foes 
than  our  bad  habits.  With  the  latter  we 
are  less  concerned  here  than  with  the  former, 
for  good  habits  are  an  auxiliary  to  both  our 
mental  and  physical  life  and  as  a  good  habit 
implies  a  normal  attitude  to  that  particular 
relation,  whatever  it  may  be,  the  nervous 
reactions  are  normal  and  healthful  as  well. 

As  for  bad  habits,  the  best  way  to  overcome 
them  is  to  starve  out  their  root-ideas  in  mind. 
Acquire  the  habit  of  ignoring  them  until  they 
die  for  lack  of  recognition,  as  die  they  must. 
Meanwhile  supplant  the  false  idea  with  a 
true  one  by  persistent  cultivation.  While 
this  is  easier  said  than  done,  it  is  done  in  this 
way  to  far  better  advantage  than  by  the  usual 


Habit  i^G>i 

method  of  combating  the  thing  to  be  overcome. 
For  to  combat  is  to  meet  with  greater  re- 
sistance. The  idea  of  non-resistance  in  this 
connection  is  good  psychology.  Things  have 
that  power  over  us  which  we  give  them; 
they  have  no  power  in  themselves.  Their 
importance  to  us  depends  altogether  upon  the 
rank  we  give  them  in  our  own  consciousness. 
One  cannot  do  without  his  cup  of  coflee,  a  sec- 
ond without  his  cigar,  a  third  without  cham- 
pagne. But  what  are  these  things  to  an 
Esquimaux,  who  would  miss  nothing  so  much 
as  the  blubber  to  which  he  is  accustomed? 
Do  not  fight  with  your  ill-considered  habits; 
learn  to  ignore  them  by  concentrating  the 
attention  on  something  else.  To  fight  is  to 
give  them  greater  importance  in  consciousness 
and  thus  to  increase  their  seeming  power. 
Instead,  minimise  that  power  while  asserting 
your  own  superiority  and  cultivating  true 
friends  to  take  the  place  of  the  false  ones. 
Seek  the  angels  and  you  need  not  resist  the 
devils;  but  you  must  cultivate  the  angels 
with  all  the  persistence  and  devotion  you 
once  gave  to  the  devils.  When  you  have 
formed  a  good  habit,  not  only  will  it  become 
necessary  to  you  but  the  bad  habit  will  no 
longer  appeal  and  will  die  a  natural  death.     A 


ioi2  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

new  set  of  neural  paths  are  thus  formed, 
while  the  old  paths  are  gradually  obliterated. 
Good  habits  are  so  many  lieutenants,  work- 
ing for  us  by  relieving  us  of  conscious  atten- 
tion to  many  details.  Compare  the  efforts 
of  a  child  learning  to  walk,  or  of  a  man  learning 
to  swim  or  to  ride  the  bicycle,  with  the  skipping 
boy  or  the  expert  swimmer  or  bicyclist,  and  you 
have  a  good  example  of  what  habit  may  do, 
for  walking,  swimming,  and  riding  are  merely 
habits.  Now  our  conscious  mental  processes 
— as  far  as  the  habit  of  right-thinking  is  con- 
cerned— are  often  as  ineffective  as  the  efforts 
of  the  child  to  walk  or  of  the  beginner  on  the 
bicycle.  Suppose  we  were  obliged  to  make 
the  same  effort  in  breathing  that  we  do  in 
voluntary  action,  how  laborious  it  would  be. 
Thus  controlled  thinking  is  an  effort  at  first, 
but  once  let  it  become  a  habit  and  it  goes 
on  almost  automatically  thenceforth.  In  this 
connection  we  can  hardly  lay  too  much 
emphasis  on  the  importance  of  habit.  To 
make  your  habit  friendly  is  at  the  same  time 
to  make  your  nervous  system  an  ally.  The 
expert  bicyclist  rides  without  the  least 
thought  of  his  machine,  but  it  was  not  until 
riding  became  a  habit  that  it  ceased  to  be  a 
conscious   process   with   him.     In   the   same 


I 


L 


Habit  103 

way  an  expert  thinker  would  come  in  time  to 
balance  his  mind  and  largely  to  control  it 
in  accordance  with  the  laws  of  right-thinking, 
with  little  or  no  conscious  attention  either  to 
his  body  or  to  the  mental  processes  themselves. 
With  most  of  us,  wrong-thinking  is  habitual 
and  automatic.  When  right-thinking  becomes 
automatic  and  as  unconscious  as  breathing, 
we  shall  have  become  truly  our  own  friends. 
The  heart  beats  and  the  lungs  are  inflated 
without  conscious  effort  and  the  muscles  are 
never  tired,  whereas  voluntary  action  of  the 
muscles  soon  fatigues.  Athletes  who  persist 
too  long  in  the  development  of  any  set  of 
muscles  become  muscle-bound.  Too  much 
conscious  direction  of  thought  produces  a  sort 
of  mental  paralysis:  we  become  thought- 
bound.  There  must  be  an  outlet  in  action; 
it  must  find  expression  because  of  that  inti- 
mate association  of  thought  and  the  nervous 
system  to  which  reference  has  so  frequently 
been  made.  If  it  does  not,  we  become  self- 
hypnotised  by  watching  our  own  mental 
processes.  Mere  affirmations  are  not  sufficient 
in  themselves.  One  who  goes  no  further  than 
this  is  like  a  would-be  bicyclist  who  should 
devote  his  energies  to  affirming  he  could  ride, 
without  ever  getting  on  a  machine  to  give 


I04  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

his  thought  outlet  in  action.  If  you  affirm 
you  are  free  from  the  tyranny  of  sensation,  lose 
no  opportunity  of  proving  it  to  yourself. 
Endeavour  to  give  concrete  expression  to  the 
truths  you  hold  in  mind,  for  only  so  do  they 
become  galvanised  into  life. 

Kindness,  consideration,  cheerfulness,  self- 
forgetfulness  and  self-control  may  all  become 
habits.  They  should  in  fact  be  designated  the 
normal  habits  of  a  thoroughbred  mentality, 
as  they  are  the  normal  inheritance  of  the 
spiritually  well-bom.  They  are  acquired, 
perhaps,  painfully  at  first  and  with  much 
effort.  But  consider  the  balance,  the  poise, 
the  efficiency  of  the  expert  rider  and  that, 
furthermore,  all  this  is  the  result  of  habit. 
Riding  at  ease,  he  is  free  to  enjoy  the  land- 
scape, with  no  thought  of  himself;  while  the 
beginner,  with  eyes  riveted  on  his  machine, 
flounders  about  the  road  in  momentary  dread 
of  falling  on  his  head.  In  like  manner  the 
habit  of  right-thinking  relieves  us  from  con- 
scious effort  or  from  attention  to  the  mental 
processes  or  to  the  body,  while  we  may  go  on 
our  way  well-balanced  and  free  to  look  about 
us  and  enjoy  the  panorama  of  life. 

In  regard  to  the  method  of  acquiring  these 
habits,  a  word  should  be  said  about  inhibition. 


Habit  105 

While  we  may  attend  to  directing  some 
thought  currents,  they  are  often  offset  by  in- 
coming currents  of  an  undesirable  character. 
It  is  here  we  should  inhibit  by  giving  the 
negative  thought  no  recognition.  Put  down 
the  brakes!  Stop  thinking!  Then  turn  into 
another  road.  To  inhibit  is  merely  to  put  on 
the  brakes.  We  steer  by  our  understanding 
of  the  road  and  our  knowledge  of  the  country 
— in  this  case  the  laws  of  right-thinking. 
The  efficient  instrument  for  accomplishing 
this  is  the  Will. 


CHAPTER  IV 
THE  WILL 

WE  have  seen  that  sense  impressions  of 
the  outer  world  come  to  the  mind 
through  the  afferent,  a  mechanism  purely 
automatic  in  its  working  and  alike  in  man  and 
the  ape.  In  the  lower  animals- — virtually 
machines — all  their  activities  are  comparable 
with  that  which  is  involuntary  with  us.  Noth- 
ing intervenes  between  the  afferent  impression 
and  the  efferent  result.  The  will  does  not 
exist.  Titillate  the  nerve  of  a  decapitated 
frog  and  the  frog  will  kick  precisely  as  if  alive, 
and  this  action  illustrates  the  conduct  of 
purely  afferent  people.  A  particular  stimu- 
lus results  in  a  nervous  discharge,  which  may 
be  motor  in  effect,  as  when  the  drunkard, 
seeing  a  bottle,  lifts  it  to  his  lips,  or  when 
we  react  upon  prejudices  aroused  by  the 
mere  sight  of  certain  things  and  immediately 
express  annoyance  or  anger. 

In  man  the  will  normally  intervenes  be- 
106 


The  Will  107 

tween  the  afferent  and  the  efferent,  and  where 
it  does  not,  it  is  because  it  is  either  atrophied, 
or  the  action  has  become  a  habit  and  the  will 
is  not  called  upon  at  all.  This  is  the  case 
with  bad  habits  when  sufficiently  indulged, 
and  the  effect  upon  the  will  is  that  it  becomes 
flaccid  like  an  unused  muscle.  For  the  will 
is  strengthened  by  use  precisely  as  muscles 
are  developed  by  exercise.  Neither  is  the 
will  called  upon  in  an  established  good  habit, 
as,  for  instance,  the  habit  of  right-thinking; 
but  it  is  by  means  of  the  will  in  the  first  place 
that  we  are  able  to  form  that  habit.  Thus 
we  may  say  that  good  habits  are  formed  by 
the  will,  w^hile  bad  habits  are  in  large  measure 
the  result  of  an  ineffective  will. 

Will,  then,  is  energy,  and  its  function  is  not 
only  to  intervene  between  incoming  and  out- 
going currents  but  to  give  force  to  motives 
and  resolves.  We  may  form  good  resolutions, 
but  they  are  of  no  use  unless  we  have  the 
will  to  carry  them  out.  Character  may  be 
defined  as  a  will  acting  in  accordance  with 
wisdom.  More  than  any  other  factor,  the 
will  gives  force  and  identity  to  the  personal 
self,  and  whatever  influences  tend  to  weaken 
the  will  are  of  necessity  bad.  If,  as  its  enemies 
claim,  hypnotism  has  this  effect,  it  is  certainly 


io8  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

to  be  avoided.  It  is  obvious,  however,  that 
the  will'  is  not  sufficient  in  itself.  If  we 
choose  between  two  roads  or  two  courses  of 
action,  our  choice  is  the  result  of  such  wisdom 
as  we  have,  but  we  must  will  to  choose  and 
again  will  to  pursue  the  course  we  have  chosen. 
Strangely  enough  some  psychologists,  like 
Spencer,  make  nothing  of  the  will,  while 
others  overestimate  its  office.  Suffice  it  to 
say  that  the  will  is  efficient  only  as  it  is  in- 
telligently directed. 

In  building  the  acquired  areas  in  the  brain, 
the  instrument  is  the  will.  For  example,  in 
developing  a  music  centre  through  cultivation 
of  that  art,  it  is  by  the  energy  of  the  will 
that  we  work  and  study  and  persevere.  It 
is  the  will  to  work,  the  will  to  learn,  the  will 
to  do,  that  is  ever  fashioning  our  brains, 
our  mentalities,  in  accordance  with  specific 
ideals.  The  will  does  not  supply  those  ideals, 
however.  In  relation  to  the  nervous  system, 
it  will  readily  be  seen  that  the  will  must  be 
a  powerful  modifier  of  nervous  reactions. 
Suppose,  for  instance,  you  see  something  that 
arouses  your  indignation,  and,  without  any 
intervention  of  the  will,  you  allow  it  to  find 
eflferent  expression  in  a  fit  of  anger.  The 
stream  of  consciousness  is  swept,  as  it  were, 


The  Will  109 

by  a  hurricane,  the  motor  centres  are  inhibited 
from  doing  their  automatic  work,  the  viscera 
are  more  or  less  disturbed,  j3ulse  and  respira- 
tion change  and  acids  are  created  in  the  blood 
and  secretions.  As  a  result  you  are  mentally 
and  physically  upset.  Suppose,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  will  strongly  interfered  after  the 
afferent  impression  which  was  the  occasion  of 
all  this,  and  in  time  to  check  the  rising  storm, 
the  resulting  nervous  reactions  would  thus 
be  mitigated  or  avoided. 

We  should  aim,  therefore,  to  let  the  will 
and  not  the  afferent  be  the  agent  of  our  acts 
except  where,  in  the  case  of  useful  habits, 
we  have  disciplined  ourselves  to  act  wisely 
without  conscious  effort.  The  pupil  must 
for  a  long  time  will  to  hold  his  bow  correctly 
in  learning  the  violin,  but  with  the  virtuoso 
this  has  become  automatic  and  he  gives  it  no 
thought.  If,  however,  he  had  not  first  disci- 
plined himself,  he  would  have  acquired  bad 
habits  of  bowing  and  to  overcome  these  would 
then  necessitate  a  great  effort  of  the  will. 

The  efficient  means  of  strengthening  the 
will  is  to  lose  no  opportunity  of  putting  good 
resolutions  into  practice.  Will  to  do  a  useful 
thing  and  then  do  it.  Confront  every  afferent 
impression  with  the  resolute  will  and  await 


no  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

the  dictates  of  reason  before  acting.  You 
may  thus  determine  what  mental  state  and 
virtually  what  nervous  reactions,  if  any,  shall 
ensue.  In  impulsive  natures,  the  time  between 
an  afferent  impression  and  its  efferent  dis- 
charge is  very  brief,  while  with  phlegmatic 
temperaments  it  is  much  longer.  It  amounts 
to  the  same  thing,  however,  unless  the  will 
performs  its  office.  One  is  an  electric  spark, 
the  other  a  slow  fuse.  The  advantage  of 
the  slow  reaction  is  that  there  is  more  time 
in  which  the  will  may  act.  The  theory  of  the 
will  is  quite  simple  and,  like  a  theory  of 
physical  development,  is  of  no  use  whatever 
unless  it  is  put  into  practice.  Reading  about 
exercise  never  gives  any  one  strength.  The 
advantage  of  reading,  or  of  watching  others, 
is  that  it  may  inspire  one  to  do  something  for 
himself. 

An  emission  of  the  will  is  virtually  a  prayer 
that  the  particular  things  willed  shall  come 
to  pass,  and  in  this  sense  willing  is  praying. 
The  will  to  do  right  may  become  a  habit; 
that  is,  a  rightly  developed  will  may  become 
habitual,  and  this  sets  in  motion  psychic  ac- 
tivities as  yet  little  understood.  The  directed 
will  is  not  only  efficient  energy  in  itself  but  is 
reinforced  from  the  universal  energy,  whereas 


I 


The  Will  III 

the  weak  and  inefficient  will  is  further  weak- 
ened by  currents  of  negation  from  the  world- 
thought.  The  will  to  work,  and  better  still 
the  will  to  do  good  work,  is  for  all  practical 
purposes  the  prayer  of  the  workman,  and 
this  prayer  finds  answer  in  the  quality  of  the 
work  itself.  Will  to  amount  to  something, 
will  to  succeed  in  your  life-work,  and  work 
at  your  task,  assured  that  your  prayer  will 
be  answered.  But  go  at  your  work  in  a  half- 
hearted, indifferent  way,  let  your  will  be  weak, 
your  energy  misdirected,  and  all  your  prayers 
to  the  empty  sky  will  not  avail  you  in  the 
least. 

It  is  evident  that  the  will,  thus  considered, 
is  merely  the  instrument  of  our  activities. 
It  is,  in  a  sense,  force.  As  to  how  we  use  that 
force,  whether  wisely  or  unwisely,  will  depend 
on  our  intelligence.  Our  finite  vision  is  limited 
and  unreliable;  we  see  but  the  minutest  arc 
of  the  perfect  circle,  and  it  follows  that  the 
highest  use  of  the  will  is  to  adapt  the  mind 
to  the  purposes  of  that  Higher  Will  we  name 
God.  We  do  not  and  can  not  always  know 
what  is  best  even  for  ourselves.  Our  worldly 
wisdom  is  often  folly.  Sufficient  reason  then 
that  we  should  aim,  not  to  act  of  ourselves 
so  much  as  to  let  the  Supreme  Will  act  through 


112  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

us.  As  we  have  seen,  the  Soul  is  in  truth 
God  in  us — the  unchangeable  background  over 
which  passes  the  ever  changing  stream  of 
consciousness.  To  merge  the  human  will  in 
the  Divine  is  simply  to  bring  the  Soul  into 
consciousness,  and  to  do  this  is  to  think  and 
act  in  accordance  with  Principle.  In  our 
opposition  to  Truth  we  are  as  a  machine  out 
of  gear,  an  instrument  out  of  time,  a  discord, 
and  our  action  becomes  mal-action. 

The  "will  of  God"  is  sanity  and  peace  and 
health,  and  in  so  far  as  we  express  these  we 
reflect  the  true  purpose  of  life.  We  are 
nothing;  God  is  all.  Our  life  is  in  God,  our 
energy  is  of  God,  and  the  human  will  is  in- 
tended, not  to  obstruct,  but  to  admit  the 
tide  of  power  from  above.  Its  supreme 
function  is  to  place  us  in  the  divine  current 
that  it  may  act  through  us,  that  instead  of 
the  fruitless  effort  to  supply,  we  shall  be  in 
position  to  fully  receive  the  energy. 


CHAPTER  V 
ATTENTION 

MANY  influences  play  upon  the  mind  at 
any  given  moment  and  several  factors 
determine  to  which  we  shall  give  attention, 
such  as  interest,  habit,  will,  and  nervous  con- 
ditions. Chief  among  these  are  interest  and 
habit,  and  the  attention  is  as  a  rule  alive  to 
a  thing  in  proportion  to  the  interest  we  have 
in  it,  so  that  in  looking  over  a  newspaper 
we  detect  at  a  glance  the  item  which  most 
concerns  our  peculiar  and  personal  interest 
among  a  mass  of  wholly  irrevelant  matter. 
In  a  flash  we  see  the  stock  quotation,  the 
name  of  a  friend,  the  reference  to  country  or 
city  with  which  we  are  familiar.  Women 
instantly  see  details  of  dress  which  a  man 
would  never  detect.  Let  a  naturalist,  an 
artist,  and  a  merchant  walk  together  through 
the  woods  and  they  will  receive  three  dis- 
tinct sets  of  impressions  corresponding  to  the 
particular  interests  of  each.     The  naturalist 


114  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

will  be  alive  to  birds  and  plants,  the  artist 
to  colour  effects  and  composition,  and  the 
merchant  to  real-estate  and  lumber  possibili- 
ties. The  artist  will  not  see  the  most  obvious 
commercial  value,  while  the  merchant  will 
be  blind  to  the  plants  under  foot  and  deaf  to 
the  birds  overhead.  Each  has  acquired  the 
habit  of  looking  for  that  in  which  he  is  inter- 
ested to  the  exclusion  of  other  things. 

What  applies  to  normal  tastes  applies 
equally  to  abnormal  ones.  People  who  con- 
stantly attend  to  physical  conditions  in 
themselves  or  their  children  are  keenly  alive 
to  minute  changes  of  air,  details  of  diet, 
and  possible  dangers  which  do  not  even  oc- 
cur to  those  who  are  differently  constituted. 
Self-centred  persons  also  are  attentive  to 
subtle  conditions  with  reference  to  themselves 
which  others  do  not  notice.  Habit  and 
interest  work  together  to  make  us  sensitive 
to  certain  impressions.  The  more  we  pay 
attention  to  any  particular  class  of  ideas,  the 
more  attentive  we  become.  It  is  thus,  the 
naturalist  becomes  so  good  an  observer, 
the  engineer  so  alive  to  the  condition  of  his 
engine,  the  musician  so  sensitive  to  discord, 
tone,  and  technic.  Fear  is  also  one  of  the 
mainsprings  of  attention  with  many,  and  to 


Attention  1 1 5 

be  afraid  of  diseases  or  burglars  or  drafts 
is  to  be  always  looking  for  them,  to  be  keenly 
attentive  in  these  several  directions.  Thus 
is  formed  the  habit  of  looking  for  undesirable 
things — of  never  07;^rlooking  them — a  habit 
which  plays  havoc  with  the  nervous  system. 

We  can  have  but  a  superficial  idea  of  any 
subject  if  the  interest  has  not  been  aroused, 
for  only  then  do  we  become  attentive,  and  the 
moment  we  become  attentive  the  subject 
begins  to  grow  in  our  consciousness,  and  to 
assume  new  proportions  and  a  different  aspect. 
Unless  we  are  truly  observant  we  may  look 
at  a  thing  and  never  see  it.  This  fact  of 
psychology  is  as  beneficial  in  one  way  as  it 
may  be  harmful  in  another.  Consider  the 
details  to  which  confirmed  invalids  give  atten- 
tion and  how  unprofitable  such  things  appear 
to  a  robust  person.  Consider  the  things 
which  frighten  little  children  and  timid  peo- 
ple and  how  remote  these  are  from  the  con- 
sciousness of  a  strong  man.  The  question  is 
then,  to  some  extent,  to  what  class  of  things 
do  you  choose  to  attend,  and  to  what  class 
will  you  be  indifferent?  For  this  choice 
persisted  in  will  form  a  habit,  and  to  have 
the  habit  of  always  being  receptive  to  the 
good,  the  beautiful,  and  the  true,  but  deaf  and 


ii6  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

blind  to  the  false  and  mean,  is  to  build  upon  a 
rock. 

Men  pay  little  heed  to  spiritual  and  philoso- 
phic truth  because  their  interest  is  so  absorbed 
in  other  directions,  in  business  and  worldly 
affairs.  It  is  usually  when  in  trouble  or  in  , 
fear  of  losing  their  health  that  they  turn  for ' 
the  first  time  to  spiritual  things.  They  will 
thus  repeat  dogmas  for  years  which  they  do 
not  in  the  least  comprehend  and  which  have 
no  meaning  for  them  whatever,  simply  because 
like  a  parrot  repeating  the  same  thing,  they 
have  given  no  attention  to  the  subject.  The 
moment  they  do  wake  up  and  attend  to  it,  the 
absurdity  of  some  of  their  beliefs  becomes 
evident  to  them. 

Nothing,  for  instance,  can  be  more  vital 
than  a  knowledge  of  the  working  of  our  minds 
— a  practical  psychology — yet  how  few  have 
awakened  to  any  interest  in  this  subject. 
Having  no  interest  they  are  not  attentive, 
and  the  most  obvious  facts  and  relations 
concerning  mental  action  pass  unnoticed  by 
those  who,  having  eyes,  see  not;  for  they  have 
no  eyes  as  yet  for  this  particular  thing.  When 
one  first  becomes  interested  in  helping  himself 
through  a  better  understanding  and  a  more 
efficient    control    of    his    mental    forces,    he 


Attention  117 

will  be  astonished  that  simple  facts  which 
then  become  evident  should  have  for  so  long 
escaped  his  attention.  And  if  the  interest  is 
sincere,  he  will  be  equally  surprised  at  the 
magnitude  which  that  interest  will  presently 
assume,  and  at  the  number  of  corrections 
he  will  have  to  make  in  his  previous  opinions. 
In  this  connection  it  must  occur  to  him 
that  a  good  part  of  his  energy  has  been  wasted 
through  the  habit  of  wandering  in  his  mind, 
that  is  by  a  scattered  attention  and  by  lack 
of  discrimination.  He  will  find  that  he  has 
given  much  attention  to  unprofitable  things, 
such  as  his  aches  and  pains,  the  shortcomings 
and  peculiarities  of  others,  and  the  bridges 
which  he  may  have  to  cross  but  which  in  all 
probability  he  never  will.  The  mind  is  not 
unlike  an  unruly  horse  which  needs  to  be 
tamed  and  held  well  in  hand.  When  the  horse 
shies  or  prances  in  fear  he  must  be  calmed  and 
reassured.  If  he  starts  to  run  he  must  be 
held  in  with  a  firm  hand.  If  he  balks  be  must 
be  urged  along.  In  short  he  must  be  disci- 
plined with  firmness  and  good  judgment  until 
he  becomes  a  well-broken  animal.  A  mind 
which  has  never  been  disciplined  is  like  the 
fractious  horse,  a  constant  source  of  trouble. 
The  foolish  horse  shying  at  objects  in  the 


ii8  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

road,  simply  because  they  attract  his  eye, 
t3^ifies  the  state  of  the  undisciplined  mind. 

When  this  is  once  perceived,  the  next  step 
is  to  eliminate  the  unprofitable  things  from 
consciousness  by  withdrawing  the  thought 
from  them  and  concentrating  it  upon  that 
type  of  impressions  and  that  class  of  ideas 
which  are  profitable — ^upon  truth,  that  is, 
and  not  upon  error.  Subdue  the  mind  into 
following  the  road  which  reason  directs  and 
at  the  pace  which  the  will  enjoins.  Con- 
centration is  no  more  than  an  absorbed  at- 
tention. You  will  find  people  have  great 
powers  of  concentration  when  they  are  watch- 
ing a  fire  or  a  ball  game ;  they  have  very  little 
when  it  comes  to  reflecting  upon  philosophy. 
That  same  singleness  of  purpose  and  focusing 
of  the  mind  which  goes  to  the  ball  game  would 
work  wonders  if  applied  every  day  to  estab- 
lishing mental  control  and  picturing  true  ideas. 

Concentration  is  not  only  a  good  mental 
exercise  but  is  essential  to  mental  efficiency. 
Uncontrolled  force  of  any  kind  is  for  the 
most  part  wasted.  To  focus  the  attention, 
like  converging  the  rays  of  the  sun,  is  to  derive 
added  power,  provided  the  thought  is  directed 
upon  a  proper  object.  The  ill  effects  of  mis- 
directed attention  are  shown  in  cUses  of  in- 


Attention  119 

tense  grief  and  fear  and  in  monomania.  Ti*ulh 
is  the  normal  field  of  activity,  and  just  here 
we  have  the  basis  of  Suggestion,  which  will  be 
considered  in  a  later  chapter.  That  upon 
which  we  focus  the  attention  stands  out  in 
relief,  as  in  the  field  of  a  searchlight,  while 
all  else  is  in  darkness.  Let  that  concentra- 
tion fall  upon  Absolute  Truth  and  error  has 
no  existence  for  that  mind — as  it  has  no 
reality  in  fact;  but  let  it  fall  upon  error, 
and  truth  is  for  the  time  non-existent  for  that 
person.  It  is  evident  that  discrimination 
is  quite  as  important  as  attention.  We  must 
concentrate  upon  that  which  is  true  and 
remove  the  attention  from  that  which  is 
false. 


CHAPTER  VI 
IMAGINATION 

THE  stream  of  consciousness  may  be  lik- 
ened  to  a  series  of  moving  pictures. 
We  may  be  said  to  think  in  images.  Not  all 
of  these,  however,  are  visual,  for  they  may  be 
auditory,  verbal,  and  even  muscular.  Thus 
we  may  mentally  hear  the  soimd  of  words, 
or  in  thinking  them  we  may  have  the  bodily 
feeling  of  them  in  the  vocal  organs.  We  may 
have  a  visual  picture  of  a  man  running,  or 
we  may,  in  thinking  of  the  runner,  have  the 
bodily  feeling  of  running  ourselves.  Picture 
yourself  in  a  hundred-yard  dash,  and  see  if 
you  do  not  have  a  feeling  of  it  in  your  legs 
and  in  the  head  and  shoulders  as  well.  If  the 
picture  is  vivid,  there  will  be  the  feeling  of 
pushing  the  shoulder  forward  as  if  to  get  over 
the  line.  Fancy  yourself  to  be  stroking  the 
Varsity  crew  and  you  will  have  in  the  back 
and  arms  the  bodily  feeling  of  rowing. 

120 


Imagination  121 

The  association  is  thus  very  close  between 
a  mental  picture  and  a  corresponding  bodily 
state — one  of  the  most  important  facts  of 
psychology  in  the  relation  of  mind  and  body. 
Some  think  largely  in  verbal,  some  in  visual, 
others,  like  musicians,  in  auditory  images. 
Whichever  it  may  be,  thought  frames  itself 
always  in  an  image  of  some  kind ;  presumably, 
in  most  minds,  in  that  most  appropriate  to 
the  character  of  their  thought. 

With  the  half -educated,  imagination  is 
merely  the  synonym  for  delusion.  But  the 
truth  is  that  the  imaging  faculty  is  essential 
to  thought,  for  we  cannot  escape  the  necessity 
of  thinking  in  images  of  some  sort.  Imagin- 
ation is  properly  a  recollection  and  associa- 
tion of  former  mental  images  and  it  may  be 
a  faithful  reproduction  or  a  recombination  of 
the  original  elements  into  a  purely  fancifvil 
picture.  It  is  that  faculty  without  which 
there  would  be  neither  Literature  nor  Art; 
but,  like  everything  else,  it  works  good  or  harm 
according  as  it  is  directed  or  misdirected,  used 
or  abused.  There  are  diseased  imaginations 
as  there  are  morbid  emotions.  Yet  emotion 
and  imagination  are  good  in  themselves  and 
essential  to  our  thought-life.  The  thing  is  to 
make  friends  of  our  own  faculties.     Make  an 


122 


Philosophy  of  Self-Help 


ally  of  the  imagination  by  drawing  only  true 
pictures,  or  at  least  those  which  are  agreeable 
and  wholesome.  That  which  applies  to  think- 
ing applies  to  the  imaging  of  thought.  Give 
no  room  to  morbid  or  unwholesome  pictures, 
for  as  the  original  thought  gave  rise  to  nervous 
reactions,  so  may  a  replica  produced  long  after 
result  in  similar  reactions. 

It  is  this  fact,  particularly,  which  concerns 
us  here.  The  image  in  which  we  think  seems 
more  tangible  than  the  mind-stuff  of  which 
that  image  is  formed  and  it  is  easier  to  deal 
with  it  for  that  reason.  Much  depends  upon 
the  clearness  and  vividness  of  the  mental 
picture,  and,  little  as  we  understand  the  inner 
process,  we  may  at  least  affirm  that  wherever 
emotion  is  associated  with  the  imaging  process 
the  picture  will  be  more  lasting.  This  is 
particularly  true  of  images  formed  in  great 
fear,  for  these  appear  to  be  stamped  much 
more  deeply  than  others.  Mere  fanciful 
pictures  may  have  no  more  permanence  than 
negatives  which  have  not  been  ''fixed"  and 
which  fade  on  being  exposed  to  the  light. 
When  a  picture  is  formed  under  the  stress  of 
emotion,  however,  the  emotion  appears  to  act 
like  a  fixing  bath  and  to  give  the  negative 
permanence.     Thus  pictures  of  accidents  have 


Imagination  123 

been  known  to  persist  many  years  and  after 
the  lapse  of  time  to  still  produce  physical 
distress  on  occasion.  These  pictures  may  be 
hung  on  the  walls  of  memory,  or  they  may 
have  been  relegated  to  that  little  known  region 
the  subconscious,  where,  although  they  are 
forgotten,  their  presence  not  even  suspected, 
they  still  have  power  to  induce  nervous  re- 
actions consonant  with  those  they  originally 
produced  when  fresh  in  mind. 

This  relation  of  mental  images  to  the  body, 
when  formed  during  an  emotional  state,  is 
peculiar  and  very  subtle.  Professor  James 
quotes  an  instance  in  which  a  gentleman,  hav- 
ing accidentally  crushed  his  child's  finger  in 
the  door,  himself  experiences  for  several  days 
thereafter  acute  pain  in  his  own  finger. 
Mr.  Whipple  cites  many  cases  showing  the 
relation  of  pictures  formed  in  childhood  or 
youth  to  diseases  which  manifested  themselves 
in  after  life.  The  moral  is — ^to  create  no 
negative  pictures ;  and  where,  as  in  the  case  of 
accidents,  such  pictures  are  formed  in  spite 
of  us,  not  to  dwell  upon  them  afterward,  as 
is  usually  done,  but  to  begin  at  once  to  elimi- 
nate them  by  some  healthful  thought  process 
calculated  to  that  end.  Let  the  will  assert 
itself  at  once  to  restore  equilibrium  and  to 


124         Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

persistently  erase,  as  it  were,  the  undesirable 
image,  while  outlining  and  fixing  in  its  place 
one  of  calmness  and  peace.  This  will  be 
easier  in  proportion  as  we  have  cultivated  the 
habit  of  creating  harmonious  pictures  and  of 
rejecting  those  which  portray  discord.  News- 
paper crimes  and  patent  medicine  advertise- 
ments form  negative  pictures  in  the  mind  of 
the  reader.  To  think  or  talk  of  disease  or 
crime  is  to  make  the  mind  more  and  more  sus- 
ceptible to  negative  images.  Avoid  those 
people  who  habitually  talk  of  these  things. 
They  are  disease-mongers. 

It  is  a  peculiarity  of  the  imagination  that  it 
engenders  emotion.  Thus  if  some  one  has 
offended  us,  when  we  afterwards  recall  the 
incident  and  bring  to  mind  the  picture  of  his 
offensive  conduct,  we  experience  again  the 
feeling  of  indignation,  and  the  more  we  think 
of  it,  the  more  indignant  we  become.  It  is 
as  if,  having  once  outUned  a  picture  lightly 
in  pencil,  we  should  every  now  and  then  go 
over  it  again  until  the  lines  were  cut  into  the 
paper.  Obviously  it  grows  more  and  more 
difficult  to  erase  such  a  picture.  Of  the 
several  classes,  visual  images  appear  to  im- 
press themselves  more  deeply  and  to  be  more 
prepotent  in  nervous  reactions,  perhaps  be- 


Imagination  125 

cause  they  have  greater  appearance  of  reality. 
The  more  reality  we  give  to  a  picture,  the 
more  harm  we  may  experience  if  it  is  negative, 
the  more  good  if  positive.  If  you  have  escaped 
from  anything,  be  thankful  and  think  no 
more  about  it.  Sever  your  connection  with 
it  in  consciousness  as  soon  as  possible.  The 
affair  actually  lasted  but  a  few  moments,  it 
may  be,  but  by  creating  a  vivid  picture  to  store 
in  the  subconscious,  it  may  virtually  be  made 
to  last  as  long  as  you  live,  and  over  and 
over  again  to  engender  the  same  emotions. 
After  a  while  emotions  may  cease,  but  the 
nervous  reactions  will  continue  from  habit. 

Through  suggestion  it  is  possible  to  create 
negative  images  in  the  minds  of  others.  In 
the  case  of  physicians  this  is  inexcusable, 
and  those  who  to-day  are  so  ignorant  of  the 
psychology  of  the  imagination  and  the  emo- 
tions, or  of  the  nature  of  suggestion,  as  to  thus 
endanger  their  patients  are  unfit  to  practise. 
In  their  ignorance  they  do  more  harm  than 
they  can  ever  do  good.  The  minds  of  the  sick 
are  often  especially  receptive  to  negative  im- 
ages. Sickness  is  almost  always  associated 
with  fear.  The  anxious  mind  of  the  patient 
is  like  a  sensitised  paper  upon  which  the  doc- 
tor's verdict  produces  a  picture  of  the  very 


126  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

disease    the    patient    fears.      Mental    images 
created  under  stress  of  fear  can  not  fail  to 
produce  nervous  reactions  of  an  unfavourable 
character.     Wholly  aside  from  the  merits  or 
demerits  of  medication  the  physician  should 
be  a  practical  psychologist;  and  nothing  is 
more  important  than  that  he  should  always 
approach  his  patients  with  the  intention  of 
creating   in   their   minds   pictures   of    hope, 
courage,   wholeness.      Never  should  he  em- 
phasise the  thought  of  disease.     Now  it  is 
the  very  stock  in  trade  of  the  quack  to  create 
in  the  mind  of  his  victim  a  picture  of  the 
disease  to  which  the  patient  considers  himself 
liable.     Every    patent    medicine    advertise- 
ment is  carefully  designed  to  do  this  in  ac- 
cordance with  principles  of  psychology.     If 
you  have  strong  and  robust  lungs,  you  may 
read  of  pulmonary  troubles  without  its  making 
any  impression,  for  you  do  not  in  the  least 
apply  what  you  read  to  yourself.     If,  however, 
you  have  a  deep-rooted  fear  that  your  lungs 
may  become  diseased  because  your  father's 
were,  the  effect  of  your  reading  may  be  quite 
different.     Whatever  fear  we  entertain  makes 
us  sensitive  in  that  direction  and  susceptible 
to   influences   which   would   otherwise  have 
no  power. 


Imagination  127 

As  far  as  the  imagination  is  concerned,  the 
mind  may  be  regarded  as  a  picture  gallery 
in  which  are  hung  these  psychic  pictures,  and 
the  importance  of  the  subject  is  far  from  being 
wholly  utilitarian  and  a  matter  of  physical 
results.  The  condition  of  the  mind  itself  is 
affected  by  the  kind  of  images  it  entertains. 
Consider  what  would  be  the  result,  for  in- 
stance, of  filling  your  house  with  pictures 
of  gruesome  and  unpleasant  subjects  at  which 
you  were  obHged  to  look  from  morning  till 
night.  Yet  that  is  precisely  the  condition  of 
the  unfortunate  person  whose  mental  gallery 
is  filled  with  images  of  inharmony  and  disease. 
Consider,  on  the  other  hand,  the  effect  of 
beautiful  pictures  in  your  house — fine  land- 
scapes, pastoral  scenes,  heroic  figures,  noble 
faces,  and  types  of  physical  beauty  and  per- 
fection— and  you  have  an  example  of  a  highly 
cultivated  moral  and  aesthetic  nature  in  which 
normal  ideals  are  the  dominant  factors.  The 
images  in  such  a  mind  are  of  purity,  strength, 
and  beauty,  and  the  personal  self  is  to  that 
extent  in  harmony  with  the  Soul  which  is 
itself  Truth  and  Beauty  absolute. 


CHAPTER  VII 
EMOTION 

EVERY  emotion  is  composed  of  a  mental 
state  and  a  nervous  reaction,  which 
induce  in  turn  a  state  of  mind  more  complex 
than  the  first.  Thus  if  a  shock  occasions 
fright,  we  experience  the  usual  effect  upon 
the  heart  and  the  respiration  and  these  sen- 
sations tend  to  augment  the  original  sense  of 
fear.  If  we  are  embarrassed  and  cough  or 
gape,  the  coughing  and  gaping  may  increase 
the  embarrassment.  If  an  annoyance  causes 
us  to  lose  our  temper,  the  bodily  feeling  of 
anger  makes  us  all  the  more  angry.  Our 
emotions  are  never  disembodied  and  their 
nervous  reactions  are  far  more  pronounced 
than  is  the  case  with  purely  intellectual  con- 
cepts. In  fact  there  are  few  things  about 
which  the  mind  engages  itself — even  of  an 
unemotional  character  in  themselves — ^which 

do  not  tend  to  arouse  some  emotion  in  us. 

128 


Emotion  129 

There  are  so  many  notes  on  our  emotional 
keyboard,  from  pride  and  envy  to  love  and 
benevolence,  that  we  are  quite  certain  to 
strike  one  or  another.  We  do  almost  nothing 
impersonally.  Even  if  we  absolutely  put 
ourselves  aside,  we  are  apt  to  feel  pride  or 
self-pity  at  the  very  fact  that  we  have  put 
ourselves  aside.  Our  thought-life  is  thus 
completely  bound  up  with  the  emotions,  and 
because  of  their  nervous  reactions  they  play 
an  important  part  in  keeping  us  well,  or  in 
creating  disorder. 

People  differ  greatly,  it  goes  without  saying, 
in  the  character  and  intensity  of  their  emo- 
tions. Distinctly  emotional  natures  discharge 
feeling  on  the  slightest  provocation,  or  with- 
out provocation.  With  some,  both  fear  and 
anger  are  out  of  all  proportion  to  the  motives 
which  give  rise  to  them.  Such  people  wear 
out  the  mechanism  of  the  emotions  by  con- 
stantly playing  on  them  and  become  irritable 
and  nervous.  They  are  like  hotel  pianos 
which  everybody  takes  a  turn  at,  with  the 
result  that  the  tone  is  soon  cracked  and  they 
are  always  out  of  tune.  Colder  natures,  on 
the  other  hand,  are  slow  in  their  emotional 
responses.  Nervous  reactions  are  sudden  and 
perhaps  more  violent   with  the  first   class, 


130  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

but  not  necessarily  so  deep  or  so  prolonged 
in  their  effect  as  with  those  minds  which, 
slow  to  feel,  still  persist  in  any  feeling  once 
aroused.  The  tendency  of  modem  life  is 
to  over-stimulate  the  emotions,  to  keep  them 
keyed  up,  so  that  we  become  emotional  topers 
and  nervous  wrecks.  The  emotions  are  not 
normally  intended  to  be  in  constant  use. 
Such  a  state,  both  dissipated  and  vulgar,  is 
fostered  in  some  by  the  newspapers  in  their 
persistent  effort  to  show  everything  in  an 
emotional  light  and  to  make  the  most  stupid 
commonplaces  dramatic.  The  chief  cause  is 
the  complexity  of  our  social  life  to-day,  and 
the  increased  absorption  in  ideas  which  are 
material  and  emotional,  to  the  exclusion  of 
all  ideas  which  are  contemplative  and  phi- 
losophic. The  cure  for  it  is  intellectual  and 
spiritual  cultivation,  simpler  living,  and  both 
deeper  and  higher  thinking. 

In  place  of  classifying  the  emotions,  we  may 
simply  divide  them  for  our  purpose  into  those 
which  are  negative  and  those  which  are  posi- 
tive in  their  reactions.  Fear,  anger,  and  grief 
are  as  deleterious  in  their  effect  on  the  nervous 
system,  and  thence  on  the  body,  as  love  and 
all  kindred  emotions  are  beneficent.  It  w^ll 
be  seen  that  what  has  been  said  on  the  in- 


Emotion  131 

fluence  of  thought  applies  to  the  subject  of 
the  emotions,  for  it  is  the  same  thing  whether 
we  call  it  the  emotion  of  fear  in  the  abstract, 
or  whether  we  call  it  a  fearful  or  anxious 
thought.  The  thing  to  be  borne  in  mind  is 
that  whenever  emotion  is  related  to  our  train 
of  thought,  the  nervous  reactions  are  more 
acute.  An  emotion  is  indeed  partly  physical 
inasmuch  as  it  is  a  mental  state  mixed  with 
a  bodily  feeling.  We  not  only  feel  sorry 
but  we  feel  a  lump  in  the  throat ;  we  feel  not 
only  angry,  but  likewise  we  feel  all  the  bod- 
ily agitation  that  goes  with  that  state.  A 
*' bodily  feeling"  is  of  course  a  mental  state 
directly  induced  by  the  body. 

Among  the  immediate  results  of  the  nervous 
changes  which  follow  emotional  states  are 
dryness  of  the  throat,  flushing  or  pallor, 
suffocation,  perspiration,  acceleration  or  re- 
tardation of  the  heart  action,  indigestion, 
disturbance  in  the  functions  of  the  liver,  the 
kidneys,  the  bowels,  and  the  bladder,  together 
with  chemical  changes  in  the  blood  and  in 
the  secretions.  We  have  no  exact  knowledge 
of  why  this  takes  place  or  to  what  extent  it 
does  so,  but  any  one  can  by  observing  himself 
verify  it  in  some  particulars  at  least.  The 
reactions   vary  with  the  temperament,   the 


132  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

will,  the  intelligence,  and  with  the  mental 
and  physical  state  at  any  given  time.  We 
are  more  susceptible  at  one  time  than  at  an- 
other. But  we  may  confidently  affirm  that 
the  results  of  negative  emotions  are  always 
unhealthful,  while  the  reverse  are  beneficial. 
To  be  cheerful  or  kind,  gentle,  serene,  and  pa- 
tient always  reacts  favourably.  Every  kind 
thought,  every  courageous  thought,  every 
pure  thought  is  a  good  investment  for  the 
nervous  system,  for  the  body  as  well  as  for 
the  mind.  We  may  meet  a  catastrophe 
without  unfavourable  result  if  we  can  keep 
fear  out  of  the  mind;  on  the  other  hand,  we 
may  experience  bad  effects  from  a  false  alarm 
if  we  give  way  to  fear. 

While  the  emotions  are  not  readily  subject 
to  control,  the  tendency  should  be  to  cultivate 
those  which  are  positive  and  beneficial  and  dis- 
courage as  far  as  possible  all  that  are  negative. 
Make  it  the  rule  of  your  life  to  hold  fast  to  love 
and  let  go  of  fear.  The  practice  of  such  a 
rule  must  tend  to  form  a  habit,  so  that  you 
will  become  less  and  less  subject  to  fear  and 
more  and  more  amenable  to  love.  Now  there 
are  many  variations  of  fear,  such  as  worry, 
anxiety,  envy,  jealousy,  selfishness,  and  malice, 
while  love  expresses  itself  in  kindness,  gentle- 


Emotion  133 

ness,  patience,  considerateness,  and  tolerance. 

The  ideal  state,  then,  is  to  be  calm,  al- 
lowing the  stream  of  consciousness  to  be 
coloured  only  by  the  beneficent  emotions, 
and  inhibiting  the  negative  states  as  soon 
as  they  appear.  Since  there  is  always  action 
and  reaction  and  the  flesh  induces  states  of 
mind  through  suggestion,  ''assume  a  virtue 
if  you  have  it  not "  and  it  will  help  you  to  that 
end.  Look  calm  even  if  you  do  not  feel  so; 
smile  and  it  will  help  you  to  be  cheerful; 
throw  out  the  chest  and  breathe  deeply  and 
you  will  sooner  overcome  your  fear.  To  be 
ever  watching  ourselves  and  our  emotions 
would  be  tedious  enough;  yet  if  we  do  not 
we  shall  be  caught  napping,  unless,  indeed,  we 
have  formed  the  habit  of  giving  room  to  the 
positive  emotions  only,  and  again  habit  is  our 
best  ally — an  ally  who  watches  over  us  while 
we  sleep. 

It  is  here  that  the  limitations  of  psychology 
become  evident,  for  while  it  may  reveal  to  us 
the  relation  of  emotive  states  to  nervous 
changes  and  organic  functions,  if  we  ask  Why 
should  we  not  grieve,  or  fear  calamity,  or 
why  should  we  love  our  neighbour  ?  we  must 
turn  to  religion,  to  philosophy,  and  to  ethics 
for  our  answer.     Yet  the  practical  disclosures 


V 


134  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

of  psychology  will  be  found  to  be  in  accord 
with  the  higher  revelations  of  religion  and 
philosophy.  We  are  not  to  grieve,  because 
life  is  the  one  and  only  reality  and  death  is 
but  a  seeming.  Form  changes,  the  stream 
of  consciousness  changes,  because  it  is  in  the 
nature  of  things  and  was  so  ordained,  but  the 
self  as  knower — the  Soul — ^which  is  God  in 
us  does  not  change.  It  was  not  bom;  it  will 
not  die.  Grieve  not  then  over  the  unreal 
and  temporal  but  cleave  to  the  real  and  eternal. 
We^arejiot  to..fear  because  wlmtev^jr_piertains 
to  the  cosmic  order  is  best,  and  whatever 
proceeds  from  our  own  lives  is  the  result  of  our 
thought  processes  and,  if  undesirable,  can  be\ 
overcome  by  reversing  the  process  and  supple- 
menting truth  for  error  in  our  own  minds. 
We  are  not  to  fear,  for  we  have  no  life  of  our 
own;  our  life  is  in  God  and  God  is  Love. 
Love  is  the  one  reality  of  the  universe  and 
whatever  is  not  in  accordance  with  love 
is  not  of  God,  but  is  illusion,  and  has  only 
that  power  and  that  seeming  life  which  we 
give  it  in  consciousness. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

BELIEF 

nPHAT  there  is  a  ground  of  absolute  truth 
^  underlying  the  sea  of  opinions  is  the 
fundamental  tenet  of  spiritual  philosophy. 
What  we  think  of  this  truth  does  not  affect 
the  truth  itself  but  it  does  affect  us,  and  this 
is  the  keynote  of  what  may  be  said  on  the 
subject  of  Belief. 

No  category  could  contain  the  beliefs 
which  mankind  entertains.  It  would  be  im- 
possible to  enumerate  even  the  series  of 
beliefs  of  the  average  man  in  the  course  of  a 
lifetime.  The  stream  of  consciousness  flows 
through  a  variety  of  landscapes  in  its  ever- 
changing  bed,  dominated  by  beliefs,  or,  let 
us  say,  concepts — for  a  belief  is  merely  a 
concept  for  which  we  assume  verity.  The 
stream,  now  shallow,  anon  deeper,  now  broad, 
again  narrow,  is  turbulent  or  placid,  swift 
or  slow.  To-day  we  believe  one  thing,  to- 
morrow another,  and  next  year  something 
else,  but  Truth  itself  is  unchangeable.      Every 

135 


136  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

one  is  provided  with  a  set  of  hygienic  beliefs 
and  of  religious,  moral,  social,  and  personal 
beliefs.  Some  of  these  affect  us  but  slightly, 
lying  in  fields  to  which  we  give  little  attention ; 
while  others,  personal  in  their  nature,  take 
a  deep  hold,  arouse  the  emotions  and  excite 
nervous  reactions.  It  is  this  class  which  play 
a  prominent  part  in  our  thought-life  and  have 
a  marked  influence  upon  both  character  and 
health. 

Whatever  we  believe  to  be  so,  is  virtually 
so  to  us  while  we  entertain  that  opinion .  Hav- 
ing accepted  it  as  fact,  although  it  may  be 
fiction,  the  idea  thus  held  in  mind  and  its 
psychic  picture  are  capable  of  producing  the 
customary  reactions.  The  mental  process 
is  the  same  if  the  belief  be  true  or  if  it  be  false. 
A  certain  type  of  supposed  action  is  in  reality 
entirely  a  reaction  on  our  part.  Thus  if 
a  bear  attacks  you  there  is  both  action  and 
reaction,  but  if  you  mistake  a  stump  for  a  bear 
and  run,  there  has  been  only  a  reaction  on  your 
part — the  stump  has  done  nothing.  It  was 
not  the  stump,  but  your  fear  of  the  stump 
— that  is  to  say,  your  belief — which  was  active. 
In  many  of  our  beliefs  we  ascribe  action  and 
power  in  this  way,  whereas  it  is  our  belief  alone 
which  is  active  and  the  object  of  such  belief 


Belief  137 

has  no  more  power  than  the  stump  in  the 
illustration.  It  is  a  keen  eye  that  can 
always  distinguish  a  stump  from  a  bear  in 
the  dusk,  and  it  is  a  wise  man  who  can  tell 
truth  from  error  in  the  perpetual  dusk 
which  ignorance  casts  over  the  world.  ^ 

So  vast  is  the  conflicting  mass  of  opinions 
to  which  the  religious  and  intellectual  life  of 
man  has  given  rise  that  many  have  assumed 
everything  to  be  a  matter  of  opinion,  that 
all  is  relative  and  there  is  no  such  thing  as 
absolute  truth.  This  is  merely  a  false  belief 
itself  and  nothing  could  be  further  from  the 
facts.  As  the  circumference  of  a  circle  bears 
a  fixed  relation  to  its  diameter,  irrespective 
of  all  opinions  whatsoever,  so  man  has  a  defi- 
nite relation  to  God,  and  his  life  is  subject 
to  immutable  laws,  whatever  he  may  or  may 
not  believe.  Ignorance  of  the  principles  by 
which  Ufe  is  governed,  as  well  as  the  super- 
stitious acceptance  of  error  for  truth,  of  fiction 
for  fact,  is  responsible  for  a  great  part  of  our 
troubles.  While  the  finite  mind  can  never 
grasp  Truth  in  its  entirety,  it  must,  in  the 
course  of  human  evolution,  become  ever  in- 
creasingly aware  of  it.  There  is  nothing  to 
prevent  the  acquisition  of  spiritual  or  philoso- 
phic truth,  any  more  than  there  was  anything 


138  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

to  prevent  the  development  of  the  applied 
sciences — nothing,  that  is,  but  our  own  ig- 
norance. The  attention  is  focused  on  the 
material  aspects  of  life;  hence  the  rapid 
development  of  sciences  associated  with  com- 
merce. Who,  from  the  beginning  of  Chemis- 
try or  of  Electricity,  could  have  predicted 
the  present  expansion  of  these  sciences? 
Yet  it  is  as  absurd  to  deny  that  we  can  know 
anything  of  absolute  Truth  as  it  would  have 
been  to  deny  that  we  could  ever  know  more 
of  electricity  than  Franklin  did,  or  that  there 
was  any  such  thing  as  electrical  energy. 
The  truth  concerning  the  nature  of  man,  his 
relation  to  God,  the  nature  of  consciousness 
and  the  reactions  which  follow  mental  pro- 
cesses, is  as  essential  to  the  art  of  living, 
as  applied  science  is  to  Commerce.  If  we 
have  made  relatively  little  progress  in  this 
direction  it  is  because  the  race-mind  has  been 
otherwise  engaged.  Truth  about  these  things 
is,  it  goes  without  saying,  as  fixed  and  unalter- 
able as  the  laws  which  govern  the  motion  of 
the  heavenly  bodies;  and  while  the  false 
concepts  of  the  race  can  never  affect  the  truth, 
they  have  a  constant  bearing  upon  the  con- 
dition of  mind  and  thence  upon  the  bodies 
of  those  who  earnestly  accept  them. 


Belief  139 

As  in  the  case  of  the  bear,  many  of  our 
false  concepts  rest  upon  false  percepts.  We 
mistake  a  thing  for  something  else  and  any 
conceptual  state  which  may  ensue  must  be 
infected  with  error.  If  we  perceive,  under 
the  stress  of  emotion,  we  are  less  likely  than 
ever  to  see  clearly.  Both  love  and  fear  act 
in  this  way.  Lovers  are  incapable  of  seeing 
the  enamoured  one  as  others  see  her  and  no 
one  else  can  see  what  the  lover  does.  People 
in  a  panic  of  fear  see  what  has  no  existence 
save  in  their  own  imagination.  A  percept, 
however,  may  be  correct  and  the  conceptual 
state  which  follows  entirely  false  because  of 
inability  to  draw  proper  deductions  or  to  form 
logical  conclusions.  We  are  not  trained  to 
think  and  for  the  most  part  we  have  no 
practice  in  reasoning  along  lines  not  connected 
with  our  vocation.  We  have  business  shrewd- 
ness but  no  philosophic  acimien.  It  is  be- 
cause of  this  we  accept  the  most  absurd 
statements  with  reference  to  hygiene,  medicine, 
or  theology  without  questioning.  If  any  one 
has  a  fixed  prejudice  or  false  behef  of  long 
standing  he  comes  to  react  upon  it  automati- 
cally and  is  almost  incapable  of  reasoning 
where  that  prejudice  is  concerned,  though  he 
may  be  reasonable  in  other  directions.     Many 


I40         Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

an  earnest  Christian  is  incapable  of  reasoning 
about  the  Bible.  He  cannot  make  himself 
do  it.  But,  if  not  a  narrow  bigot,  he  is 
quite  able  to  reason  about  the  Koran. 

People  who  have  a  venerable  belief  in  the 
ill  effect  of  some  particular  dish  find  it 
equally  difficult  to  reason  where  that  is 
concerned,  or  to  be  more  exact,  they  are 
committed  to  false  reasoning.  One  declares 
that  fish  poisons  him,  another  that  it  is 
impossible  to  digest  potatoes,  a  third  that 
cherries  never  agree  with  him.  Almost  every 
article  of  food  is  condemned  by  some  one. 
None  agree — least  of  all,  the  doctors.  To 
see  how  spurious  the  usual  reasoning  is  in 
regard  to  this  subject,  we  have  only  to  re- 
member that  the  stomach  is  not  a  test-tube 
in  which  with  given  reagents  definite  reactions 
must  occur.  Unlike  the  chemical  reaction, 
the  process  of  digestion  is  complicated  by 
mental  states  and  is  never  independent  of  the 
mind.  The  action  of  a  given  food  depends 
upon  the  state  of  mind  in  which  we  eat  it. 
Any  food  may  disagree  with  us  if  taken  under 
the  stress  of  negative  emotion,  for  as  we  have 
said  in  Chapter  II,  the  automatic  centres 
are  inhibited  by  neural  currents  induced  by 
injurious  mental  states,  so  that  the  organs 


Belief  141 

which  they  govern  cannot  function  normally. 
In  view  of  this  it  is  easy  to  see  how  a  person, 
having  once  eaten  a  certain  dish  under  such 
circumstances  and  experiencing  unpleasant 
results,  may  thenceforth  associate  the  trouble 
with  the  dish,  leaving  the  state  of  mind  out 
of  the  problem  altogether  and  assuming  that 
the  dish  in  question  disagrees  with  him 
for  purely  physical  reasons. 

The  mental  picture  formed  under  these 
conditions  derives  added  power  from  the 
well-recognised  fact  in  psychology  of  associa- 
tion. If  a  process  B  follows  a  process  A  a 
sufficient  number  of  times,  the  mind  estab- 
lishes a  sequence  between  the  two  so  that 
whenever  A  occurs,  not  only  is  a  state  of 
expectancy  aroused  that  B  will  ensue,  but 
neural  paths  are  formed  tending  to  that  end. 
Thus  it  may  happen  in  time  A  will  indeed 
precipitate  B,  though  there  is  no  logical  re- 
lation between  the  two,  other  than  the  mental 
association  of  B  with  A,  and  the  tendency 
of  nervous  reactions  to  take  place  along 
established  paths.  In  such  a  case,  not  A 
but  the  associational  process  and  the  neural 
paths  are  the  true  cause  of  B. 

A  well-established  belief  then,  even  if  a 
wholly  false  concept,  has  power  to  act  through 


142  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

the  mental  picture  formed  and  the  nervous 
change  induced.  If  we  believe  a  thing  is  in- 
jurious to  us,  the  belief  itself  is  quite  sufhcient 
to  produce  an  injurious  result,  especially  when 
associated  with  fear.  This  is  by  no  means  to 
declare  that  it  is  nothing  but  belief  in  any  case, 
as  there  are  things  not  intended  for  food 
which  the  digestive  apparatus  could  not  dis- 
pose of  even  if  it  would,  and  there  are  con- 
ditions under  which  human  life  cannot  be 
sustained.  We  are  dependent  upon  air,  food, 
and  heat — ^belief,  or  no  belief.  But,  within 
reasonable  limits,  we  should  always  investigate 
whether  it  is  a  thing  or  condition,  or  our 
beliefs  about  the  thing  or  condition  which  is 
responsible  for  the  reaction. 

The  fact  that  mere  beliefs  have  power  and 
may  express  themselves  outwardly  in  the 
flesh  serves  above  all  to  emphasise  the  necessity 
of  replacing  error  in  the  mind  with  truth. 
We  must  make  our  concepts  consonant  with 
fact.  To  this  end  we  must  be  more  thought- 
ful, must  focus  the  attention  upon  those  prac- 
tical aspects  of  psychology  and  philosophy, 
an  understanding  of  which  is  essential  to  a 
spiritual  life  as  distinct  from  mere  existence 
or  getting  a  living.  It  is  only  thus  that  we  can 
clarify  the  mind  and  purge  it  of  false  con- 


Belief  143 

cepts.  Every  erroneous  belief  which  is  re- 
placed by  a  concept  of  truth  is  a  victory  which 
clarifies  and  strengthens  the  mind  and  at  the 
same  time  eliminates  an  element  of  physical 
discord.  Little  by  little  truth  is  gained;  one 
by  one  errors  are  displaced.  Ignorance  is 
the  enemy  of  the  world.  Therefore  aim  to 
see  clearly  and  love  Truth  for  its  own  sake. 
For  Truth  is  the  saviour  of  mankind ;  it  alone 
redeems  us  from  error,  and  other  than  this 
there  is  nothing  from  which  to  be  saved. 

In  the  cant  phraseology  of  the  day  which 
has  unfortunately  become  common,  you  may 
hear  now  and  again  that  some  one  has  a  **  Be- 
lief,"  meaning  thereby  a  physical  disorder. 
While  this  is  a  catch  phrase  and  often  used 
in  a  meaningless  way,  it  is  seldom  if  ever 
used  by  an  intelligent  person  to  mean  that  one 
is  ill  merely  because  he  thinks  he  is  ill,  and 
that  merely  thinking  he  is  well  will  cure  him. 
It  is  this  false  interpretation  put  upon  it  by 
the  ignorant  which  provokes  a  sneer.  While 
a  highly  imaginative  and  nervous  person  may 
be  ill  simply  because  he  thinks  he  is  ill,  this 
holds  only  in  such  peculiar  cases.  The  es- 
sential meaning,  which  applies  universally 
to  the  relation  of  mind  and  body,  must  have 
become    evident    to    the    reader    from    the 


144  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

substance  of  the  preceding  pages:  namely,  that 
a  false  concept — and  thoughts  of  malice  or 
selfishness,  and  worries  and  anxieties,  are  false 
concepts  in  the  light  of  eternal  truth — does 
form  a  mental  picture  of  a  negative  character, 
which,  by  inducing  corresponding  nervous 
reactions,  expresses  itself  outwardly  in  some 
form  of  physical  disorder. 

Let  it  be  remembered,  on  the  other  hand, 
that  true  concepts  make  for  health  and 
happiness.  We  are  bound  by  ignorance;  we 
are  freed  by  truth. 


CHAPTER  IX 
THE  WORLD-THOUGHT 

WHILE  some  concepts  are  original  with 
us,  we  borrow  many  more,  or  rather 
they  are  instigated  in  the  mind  of  the  individ- 
ual by  the  world-thought  in  which  all  minds 
function.  As  the  atmosphere  affects  every 
barometer,  so  this  mental  atmosphere  in- 
fluences the  individual,  inducing  fears  and 
hopes  and  imbuing  us  with  beliefs,  which  come, 
we  know  not  whence,  and  take  possession 
of  us,  we  know  not  why,  but  which  we  usually 
assume  to  be  the  results  of  our  own  thinking. 
With  regard  to  this,  many  are  no  more  than 
puppets  who  respond  to  beliefs  which  enter 
their  minds  as  the  common  air  enters  their 
lungs  and  whose  emotions  are  thus  largely  in- 
duced from  without.  The  excitement  of  mobs 
and  the  panic  of  crowds  are  recognised  in- 
stances of  this  influence;  epidemics,  fashions, 
and  fads  as  well  as  some  part  of  our  everyday 
thinking  are  to  be  laid  at  the  same  door, 
lo  145. 


146  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

We  may  even  venture  to  say  that  the 
world-thought  exerts  a  hypnosis  over  all 
individual  minds.  To  what  extent  this  is 
true,  few  ever  dream.  Examine  yourself 
honestly  as  to  how  many  of  your  habits  and 
your  beliefs  are  original  with  you  or  really 
belong  to  you  because  you  have  considered 
and  accepted  them  on  your  own  responsibility. 
We  do  certain  things  and  think  certain 
thoughts,  simply  because  others  do ;  and  some 
of  our  ways  antedate  the  most  remote  human 
ancestor  and  were  derived  from  the  baboon. 
The  only  original  things  about  some  people 
are  their  prejudices;  everything  else  is  a  re- 
flection of  the  world-thought.  How  many  can 
say  they  have  investigated  the  various  forms 
of  religious  and  medical  belief  for  themselves 
and  have  accepted  that  which,  after  impartial 
comparison  with  others,  they  deemed  the 
best?  For  the  most  part  we  are  Baptists  or 
Calvinists  because  our  fathers  were,  and  Re- 
publicans or  Democrats,  Allopaths  or  Homeo- 
paths for  the  same  reason.  In  like  manner  we 
accept  the  fears  of  newspaper  reporters  and 
village  gossips  and  assume  them  to  be  our 
own.  We  laugh  when  others  laugh  and  cry 
when  others  cry;  we  are  puppets  pulled  by 
invisible  wires. 


The  World-Thought  147 

Since  the  mental  atmosphere  in  which  we 
find  ourselves  is  the  source  of  much  of  our 
thinking  and  thence  of  our  emotions  and 
their  attendant  nervous  reactions,  it  deserves 
a  recognition  in  Psychology  which  it  has  not 
yet  received.  Nor  can  we  properly  consider 
the  stream  of  consciousness  without  consider- 
ing that  source  from  which  at  least  some  of  its 
activity  is  derived.  This  influence  is  in  part 
telepathic.  We  feel  the  general  elation  or 
depression  for  no  obvious  cause.  We  feel 
the  mental  atmosphere  of  congenial  or  uncon- 
genial environments  before  we  are  able  to 
assign  a  reason.  In  financial  panics  and  in 
epidemics  the  world-thought  is  coloured  with 
fear  and  lies  like  a  pall  over  humanity,  and 
it  requires  a  determined  effort  on  the  part  of 
the  individual  to  escape  this  depressing  in- 
fluence. The  force  of  any  telepathic  com- 
munication is  of  course  multiplied  tenfold 
by  talk  and  by  newspaper  comment  and  ex- 
aggeration. Minds  are  imbued  with  alarm 
and  made  receptive  to  just  those  pictures 
whose  effect  they  wish  to  escape.  Noncon- 
tagious diseases  are  propagated  by  the  con- 
tagion of  fear. 

It  must  be  remembered,  however,  that  love 
mav  be  communi     ted  as  well  as  fear,  and 


I 


14^  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

that  health  is  as  contagious  as  disease.  In 
the  race  belief,  the  word  contagion  is  associated 
only  with  undesirable  things.  But  we  have, 
now  and  then,  epidemics  of  generosity,  of 
charity,  of  morality,  and  these  should  imbue 
us  with  hope  and  courage  to  do  our  part 
in  disseminating  cheerfulness,  sanity,  and 
health.  This  is  to  be  done  by  fixing  the 
attention  on  positive  states  and  withdrawing 
it  from  negative  conditions  by  thinking  health 
and  courage  and  love  and  by  talking  about 
them.  We  may  thus  inject  into  the  mental 
atmosphere,  ideas  which  help  to  clarify, 
inspire,  and  uplift.  Thoughts  of  calmness 
and  strength  are  like  oil  poured  upon  the 
troubled  waters.  Consider  the  folly — ^the  per- 
nicious folly — of  talking  about  diseases  and 
habitually  commenting  on  people's  ill  health, 
their  paleness,  or  their  leanness.  Why  in- 
form one  he  has  a  cold — as  is  so  commonly 
done?  Do  you  suppose,  if  it  is  so,  he  does 
not  know  it  ?  It  is  the  one  thing  he  is  trying 
to  forget — and  yet  you  stupidly  remind  him 
of  it  and  the  next  person  he  meets  does  the 
same,  so  that  he  has  no  chance  to  drop  it  from 
his  mind,  if  he  will.  Or  why  tell  him  he  is 
thin?  He  has  probably  found  it  out  for 
himself  and  will  not  thank  you  for  constantly 


The  World-Thought  149 

reminding  him  of  the  fact.  If  you  think 
your  friend  does  not  look  well — pray  keep 
it  to  yourself  and  do  not  be  in  such  haste  to 
tell  him  as  if  it  were  pleasant  news.  The 
world  is  insufferably  stupid  in  this  respect 
and  the  seeds  of  disease  or  discouragement  and 
despair  are  unwittingly  sown  in  timid  or 
depressed  minds  day  in  and  day  out. 

So  common  is  this  garrulous  folly,  that  we 
must  nerve  ourselves  against  the  unwise  sug- 
gestions of  family  and  friends.  How  shall 
we  do  it?  By  resolutely  closing  the  ears  to 
negative  and  discouraging  comments  and 
by  dissuading  people,  as  tactfully  as  may  be, 
from  indulging  this  silly  habit.  Make  up  your 
mind  not  to  be  influenced  by  anything  they 
can  say.  Be  adamant  and  steel  to  their 
negation  and  return  wisdom  for  folly  by 
instantly  commenting  on  any  hopeful  sign  in 
them  which  you  may  discover.  It  is  a  sad 
thing  to  send  people  away  from  you  feeling 
depressed  or  unhappy,  yet  there  are  well- 
meaning  persons  who  do  this  all  the  days  of 
their  lives .  Well-meaning  but  ignorant  people 
cause  much  sorrow  in  the  world.  It  is  a 
noble  aim  to  imbue  others  with  a  new  courage, 
a  new  hope,  a  new  strength — and  this  is 
often  done  by  a  word.     You  can  do  it,  if  you 


150  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

will — you  who  are  now  a  wet  blanket  to 
every  one  you  meet.  Choose  then,  whom  you 
will  serve,  whether  health  and  sanity  and 
cheerfulness — or  negation  and  despair !  Only 
in  this  way  can  you  atone  for  the  harm  you 
have  already  done.  Stop  talking  disease  and 
gossip !  It  were  better  for  you  that  you  were 
dumb  than  that  you  should  continue  this 
dreary  prattling.  Make  up  your  mind  that 
you  will  discover  something  good  about  the| 
next  person  you  meet  and  that  you  will  tellj 
him  forthwith. 

A  false  belief  is  like  a  rascal  in  politics 
whose  power  is  derived  from  the  support  he 
receives.  The  more  general  the  acceptance 
of  an  erroneous  concept,  the  greater  its 
apparent  power.  This  power  lies  not  in  the 
belief  itself,  but  in  the  energy  of  the  minds 
which  accept  and  indorse  it.  It  is  merely  a 
channel  through  which  that  energy  finds 
escape.  Granted  there  are  no  witches,  no 
power  in  the  evil-eye,  yet  when  people  be- 
lieved in  such  things,  the  world-thought 
was  greatly  influenced  by  those  beliefs. 
There  are  as  many  witches  to-day  as  there 
ever  were,  but  that  false  concept  has  died 
in  the  race-consciousness  from  lack  of  recog- 
nition and  so  its  power  has  vanished.     But 


The  World-Thought  151 

if  it  is  not  witches,  it  is  something  else  equally 
foolish.  We  are  always  ready  to  believe 
more  or  less  nonsense,  simply  because  we  lack 
philosophic  acumen,  or  are  too  busy  or  too 
indifferent  to  give  honest  thought  to  the 
subject. 

The  world-thought  is  merely  the  sum-total 
of  the  activities  of  individual  minds,  as  the 
water  of  a  lake  is  composed  of  the  water  of  the 
various  streams  flowing  into  it.  Some  may 
be  ^  pure,  some  polluted,  and  the  body  of 
water  will  represent  the  average.  The  lake 
will  be  purest  where  a  clear  stream  enters 
and  most  impure  at  the  mouth  of  a  polluted 
stream.  In  our  relation  to  the  world-thought, 
we  may,  like  fish  in  a  lake,  take  up  our 
position  at  the  entrance  of  pure  streams 
and  avoid  the  impure  areas,  and  this  is  the 
only  wise  and  normal  attitude.  There  are 
pure  areas  in  the  mental  sea.  Seek  them! 
Make  yourself  receptive  to  the  good  and  the 
beautiful,  invulnerable  to  the  false  and  dis- 
torted. If  you  give  no  allegiance  to  a  false 
concept  coming  from  without,  you  will  escape 
the  resulting  emotive  states  and  their  attend- 
ant reactions.  Only  that  error  directly  affects 
us  which  we  accept,  though  we  sometimes 
suffer  for  the  ignorance  and  folly  of  others. 


152  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

All  we  can  do  is  to  keep  our  own  minds 
wise  and  pure  and  every  one  who  does  this 
is  influencing  others  in  the  same  direction 
and  doing  something  towards  purifying  the 
world-thought.  Truth  is  our  refuge  and  our 
strength.  When  all  the  world  cry  two  and 
two  make  five,  we  must  take  our  stand  upon 
the  eternal  principle  in  virtue  of  which  two 
and  two  are  four.  Don't  be  hoodwinked  by 
numbers  I  The  majority  represents  the  aver- 
age intelligence;  thinkers  are  always  in  the 
minority. 

Few  in  this  age  love  truth  for  truth^s 
sake,  but  every  one  is  enamoured  of  his  own 
opinion  and  would  convert  you  to  it.  Rest 
assured  that  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten  it  is  in 
reality  not  his  opinion  at  all  but  merely  some 
phase  of  the  world-thought  which  he  so 
zealously  reflects.  If  he  had  been  bom  with  a 
different  coloured  skin,  he  would  think  some- 
thing else  quite  as  readily.  Put  your  trust 
not  in  other  people's  beliefs,  but  in  Truth, 
for  it  alone  is  unfailing.  All  else  changes. 
The  nature  of  man,  his  true  relation  to  God  and 
to  his  fellows,  the  nature  of  consciousness 
and  its  motor  effects  and  nervous  reactions 
are  the  same  in  all  times  and  for  all  men. 
Ascertain  the  facts  with  reference  to  these 


The  World-Thought  153 

fund£imental  questions.  Take  your  stand 
upon  the  truth,  think  truth  and  live  the 
truth  and  the  changing  winds  of  opinion  may 
blow  over  your  head  but  they  will  no  longer 
disturb  you.  But  only  that  truth  is  yours 
which  you  have  thought  out  for  yourself. 
Reading  about  truth  is  not  the  same  as  realising 
it.  Reading  is  not  a  substitute  for  thinking, 
as  so  many  suppose,  but  merely  an  aid  and 
an  incentive  to  thought.  Have  you  discov- 
ered for  yourself  that  the  earth  is  rotmd,  or 
are  you  prepared  to  believe  it  is  flat  if  some 
one  should  write  a  treatise  to  prove  it  and  the 
newspapers  should  take  it  up?  Apply  this 
test  to  your  ventures  in  philosophic  thought, 
determined  to  fortify  your  mind  by  a  body 
of  truth  which  you  have  made  your  very  own. 
For  only  so  can  you  resist  the  hypnosis  of 
men's  opinions  and  the  constant  suggestion 
of  race-beliefs. 


CHAPTER  X 
THE  SUBCONSCIOUS 

WE  hear  a  great  deal  to-day  about  the 
subconscious  and  its  relation  to  dis- 
ease and  abnormal  conditions.  Its  importance 
is  probably  overrated  by  its  exponents  inas- 
much as  it  is  a  departure  in  psychology,  but 
chiefly  because  as  yet  we  know  very  little 
about  it.  That  there  is  a  subconscious  realm 
is  beyond  cavil  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  or- 
thodox psychology  is  loath  to  admit  it.  In 
the  words  of  Bruce:  "Here  and  there  are  to 
be  found  individual  psychologists  who,  with 
the  intellectual  fearlessness  of  a  William 
James,  strike  boldly  from  the  primrose  path 
of  easy-going  skepticism.  But  the  lamentable 
truth  remains  that  most  psychologists  are 
still  so  completely  under  the  dominion  of 
the  concepts  of  the  'classical'  school  as  to 
prefer,  if  possible,  to  explain  away  rather 
than  investigate."  But  if  any  one  will  con- 
sider the  great  mass  of  evidence  and  especially 

154 


The  Subconscious  155 

the  now  famovis  cases  of  Felida  X.,  Ansel 
Bourne,  and  Madame  B.  cited  in  the  annals  of 
Psychical  Research,  he  must  surely  admit 
the  fact  that  there  is  a  department  of  sub- 
conscious intellectual  activity  in  the  human 
mind. 

That  this  is  distinct  per  se  from  the  stream 
of  consciousness  itself — as  the  term  sub- 
liminal self  would  imply — is  not  proven  and 
does  not  appear  as  rational  an  explanation  as 
that  it  is  merely  a  submerged  part  of  that 
stream,  with  which  we  naturally  have  less 
acquaintance  than  with  the  surface.  Who,  in 
looking  at  a  river,  thinks  of  the  submerged 
water?  Our  consciousness  of  the  stream  is 
usually  confined  to  the  surface,  yet  we  know 
very  well  that  the  river  has  depth  and  that 
something  is  going  on  beneath  the  surface. 
As  it  is  not  apparent  we  give  thought  to  that 
alone  which  is  visible.  There  is  reason  to 
suppose  that  the  nature  of  the  subconscious 
is  not  essentially  different  from  what  we  know 
as  consciousness,  and,  as  far  as  it  has  a  bearing 
on  our  present  subject,  we  shall  consider  it 
here  as  merely  the  submerged  part  of  the 
stream  of  consciousness. 

One  thing  is  certain :  there  is  no  ground  for 
the    assimiption    that    the    subconscious    is 


1 56  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

identical  with  the  self-as-knower.  Whatever 
it  may  be,  it  pertains  to  the  self-as-known; 
but  it  may  be  true  that  it  is  more  susceptible 
to  the  influence  of  the  Soul  than  is  ordinary 
consciousness.  Why?  Simply  because  the 
surface  of  the  stream  of  consciousness,  like  the 
surface  of  a  brook,  is  ruffled  and  disturbed, 
while  the  submerged  portion  is  more  likely 
to  be  still  and  calm.  Subconsciousness  is, 
therefore,  more  susceptible  to  suggestion  than 
is  consciousness,  which  is  so  liable  to  distrac- 
tion. And  here  it  must  be  remembered  that 
if  the  subconscious  is  susceptible  to  positive 
and  wholesome  suggestion,  it  may  also  be 
receptive  to  negative  and  unwholesome  sug- 
gestion. It  may  be  assumed  that  it  is  in- 
fluenced by  just  this  class  of  ideas  from  the 
world-thought  and  that  it  does  reflect  the 
fears  and  false  beliefs  of  the  mental  atmos- 
phere and  retains  these  negative  pictures. 

A  good  account  of  the  subconscious  is  that 
given  by  Frederick  Myers.     He  says : 

The  idea  of  a  threshold  of  consciousness  —  of  a 
level  above  which  sensation  or  thought  must  rise 
before  it  can  enter  into  our  conscious  life — is  a  simple 
and  familiar  one.  The  word  subliminal — meaning 
"beneath  the  threshold" — has  already  been  used  to 
define  those  sensations  which  are  too  feeble  to  be 


The  Subconscious  157 

individually  recognised.  I  purpose  to  extend  this 
meaning  to  the  term,  so  as  to  make  it  cover  all  that 
takes  place  beneath  the  ordinary  threshold,  or  say, 
if  preferred,  the  ordinary  margin  of  consciousness — 
not  only  those  faint  stimulations  whose  very  faint- 
ness  keeps  them  submerged,  but  much  else  which 
psychology  as  yet  scarcely  recognises;  sensations, 
thoughts,  emotions,  which  may  be  strong,  definite,  and 
independent,  but  which,  by  the  original  constitution 
of  our  being,  seldom  merge  into  that  supraliminal 
current  of  consciousness  which  we  habitually  identify 
with  ourselves.  Perceiving  that  these  submerged 
thoughts  and  emotions  possess  the  characteristics 
which  we  associate  with  conscious  life,  I  feel  bound 
to  speak  of  a  subliminal  or  ultra-marginal  consciousness 
— a  consciousness  which  we  shall  see,  for  instance, 
uttering  or  writing  sentences  quite  as  complex 
and  coherent  as  the  supraliminal  consciousness  could 
make  them.  Perceiving  further  that  this  conscious 
life  beneath  the  threshold  or  beyond  the  margin 
seems  to  be  no  discontinuous  or  intermittent  thing; 
that  not  only  are  these  isolated  subliminal  processes 
comparable  with  isolated  supraliminal  processes 
(as  when  a  problem  is  solved  by  some  unknown  pro- 
cedure in  a  dream) ,  but  that  also  there  is  a  continuous 
subliminal  chain  of  memory  (or  more  chains  than  one) 
involving  just  that  kind  of  individual  and  persistent 
revival  of  old  impressions  and  response  to  new  ones, 
which  we  commonly  call  a  Self — I  find  it  permissible 
and  convenient  to  speak  of  subliminal  Selves,  or  more 
briefly  of  a  subliminal  Self.  I  do  not  indeed  by 
using  this  term  assume  that  there  are  two  correlative 
and  parallel  selves  existing  always  within  each  of  us. 


158  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

Rather  I  mean  by  the  subHminal  Self  that  part  of  the 
Self  which  is  commonly  subliminal;  and  I  conceive 
that  there  may  be — not  only  co-operations  between 
these  quasi-independent  trains  of  thought — but 
also  upheavals  and  alterations  of  personality  of 
many  kinds,  so  that  what  was  once  below  the  surface 
may  for  a  time,  or  permanently,  rise  above  it. 

It  is  assumed  by  some  that  the  subcon- 
scious in  us  is  merely  that  phase  of  the  cosmic 
mind  which  governs  animal  life  and  in  virtue 
of  which  the  lower  animals  carry  on  their 
automatic  existence.  This  may  be  accepted,  as 
far  as  it  goes,  without  negating  other  theories 
of  the  subconscious,  inasmuch  as  the  activity 
of  the  lower  centres  in  man  is,  in  so  far  as  it  is 
automatic,  certainly  identical  with  the  auto- 
matic activity  of  lower  animals.  In  man, 
however,  it  is  subject  to  modification  by 
consciousness  and  usually  to  his  disadvantage. 
The  subconscious  mind  does  govern  the 
automatic  centres  and  this  is  its  normal  and 
beneficent  function;  not  its  only  function, 
however,  for  it  is  the  subconscious  which 
takes  charge  of  that  activity  which  is  induced 
by  habit,  and  in  all  otir  useful  habits,  the 
subliminal  is  our  good  friend  and  ally. 
"The  word  subconscious,''  says  Professor  Jas- 
trow,   ''has  a  dubiotis  sound;  and  those  to 


The  Subconscious  159 

whom  it  brings  slight  illumination  associate  it 
with  questionable  phenomena  of  rare  occur- 
rence and  unusual  significance.     It  should  be 
a  homely  term;  and  its  place  is  close  to  the 
hearth  of  our  psychological  interests."     From 
the  fact  that  the  subconscious  governs  the 
lower  centres,  the  natural  inference  is  that  in 
the  course  of  mental  evolution,  the  subcon- 
scious was  first  and  that  consciousness  is  a 
later  product.     How  useful  it  is  to   us  we 
may  reahse  by  supposing  for  a  moment  that 
we  were  obliged  to   voluntarily  breathe  or 
circulate  the  blood;  or  with  respect  to  those 
acts  which  have  been  turned  over  to  the  sub- 
conscious, that  we  were  obliged  to  consciously 
walk  as  is  the  case  with  the  child  in  learning. 
The  fact  is  we  do  a  great  deal  subconsciously 
while    the    attention    is    otherwise    engaged, 
relieving  us  of  much  of  the  monotony  which 
would  ensue  if  we  had  to  watch  the  details 
of  every  process.     In  necessary  and  habitual 
acts  Hke  eating,  walking,  and  dressing,  a  part 
at  least  of  our  activity  is  subconscious.     It  is 
equally  true  that  with  people  who  are  habit- 
ually fearful  or  who  are  chronically  fussy,  fault- 
finding, or  irritable,  their  moods  have  taken 
root  in  the  subconscious  and  only  become  con- 
scious when  they  rise  above  a  given  level. 


i6o  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

Experiments  in  hypnotism  indicate  that  the 
subconscious,  in  addition  to  its  normal  func- 
tions, has  a  vital  relation  to  abnormal  states 
as  evidenced  in  multiple  personality  and 
attendant  phenomena.  This  does  not  es- 
pecially concern  us  here,  and  for  our  present 
purpose  we  may  regard  the  subconscious  as  a 
certain  impressionable  part  of  ourselves  which 
works,  independent  of  consciousness,  for  or 
against  us,  in  accordance  with  the  character 
of  the  ideas  impressed  upon  it ;  and  that  we  are 
under  the  necessity  of  so  dealing  with  this 
impressionable  submerged  mind  that  it  shall 
act  to  our  advantage  always.  In  man  as 
in  the  animal  it  is  primarily  in  accord 
with  the  cosmic  mind  we  call  nature.  Its 
derangement  arises  from  the  errors  of  the 
conscious  mind  gradually  impressed  upon 
it;  precisely  as  the  lower  centres,  which  left 
to  themselves  function  normally,  may  be 
distracted  by  nerve  currents  induced  by 
the  negative  thoughts  and  emotions  of  the 
"thinking"  brain. 

As  far  as  the  subconscious  is  concerned 
purely  with  the  automatic  activity  of  the 
body,  it  knows  better  than  the  conscious 
mind  and  should  not  be  interfered  with.  To 
quote  Professor  Jastrow  again: 


The  Subconscious  i6i 

Over-guidance  by  the  higher  centres  thus  cripples 
the  efficiency  of  the  work  of  the  lower.  The  successful 
co-operation  of  both  demands  not  only  that  the  lower 
centres  should  be  allowed  to  take  fairly  complete 
charge  of  as  large  a  portion  of  the  labour  as  they  can 
efficiently  direct,  but  that  they  should  do  so  under  a 
favourable  oversight,  not  a  "nervous"  or  intimidating 
or  vacillating  or  too  conscious  one.  The  same  holds 
in  the  process  of  acquisition  of  new  facilities ;  and  it  is  in 
part  because  children  and  young  people  are  burdened 
with  less  of  this  interfering  directorship  of  conscious- 
ness that  they  learn  many  things  more  quickly  and 
more  skilfully  than  adults. 

In  other  words — take  your  mind  off  yourself ! 

When  it  comes  to  the  reakn  of  ideas — take 
care  of  consciousness  and  the  subconscious 
will  take  care  of  itself.  If,  however,  the  sub- 
conscious has  been  vitiated  by  past  erroneous 
thinking,  as  a  pool  is  polluted  by  impure 
streams  flowing  into  it,  it  is  obviously  neces- 
sary to  check  these  incoming  streams  and 
substitute  clear  ones  until  the  pool  is  in 
time  clarified.  Impress  the  subconscious  with 
the  ideas  of  purity,  of  righteousness,  of  love, 
and  of  health  and  sanity,  that  it  may  come  to 
react  upon  these  and  these  alone. 

In  conclusion,  as  with  habit,  emotion, 
imagination,  and  the  nervous  system,  we 
must  aim  to  so  live  and  to  think  that  the 


i62  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

subconscious  shall  serve  our  true  interest 
as  it  normally  should.  The  means  of  ac- 
compHshing  this  lies  in  the  power  of  auto- 
suggestion. 


CHAPTER  XI 
SUGGESTION 

I T  is  now  generally  recognised  that  suggestion 
i  is  a  psychic  force  by  which  one  mind  is 
capable  of  impressing  another,  and,  through 
the  subconscious  which  governs  the  lower 
centres,  of  altering  and  correcting  physiologi- 
cal processes.  At  the  same  time  the  fact  does 
not  appear  to  be  appreciated  by  its  earnest  ad- 
vocates that  suggestion  is  well-nigh  universal, 
that  we  are  continually  subject  to  a  hailstorm 
of  suggestion,  and  that  it  may  be  either  good 
or  ill  in  its  effect,  according  to  the  nature  of 
the  suggestion  and  the  receptivity  of  the 
individual  to  that  particular  class  of  ideas. 
The  world-thought,  the  people  we  come  in 
contact  with,  the  newspapers  and  books 
we  read,  sights  we  behold,  to  say  nothing  of 
the  reflex  action  of  our  own  mental  states, 
suggest  to  us,  and  it  is  by  reason  of  such 
character  and  intelligence  as  we  possess  that 
we  consider  one  class  of  ideas  and  dismiss 

another. 

163 


i64  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

A  saloon  suggests  to  a  sot  that  he  take  a 
drink  and  immediately  arouses  his  thirst; 
it  has  no  such  effect  upon  a  well-balanced 
mind  or  upon  one  who  dislikes  liquor,  for 
such  a  mentality  is  not  susceptible  in  that 
direction.  This  common  example  serves  as 
well  as  any  could  to  illustrate  both  the  method 
and  limitation  of  unconscious  suggestion. 
If  you  are  a  naturalist,  the  sight  of  a  bird 
inspires  a  certain  train  of  ideas,  whereas  it 
suggests  nothing  at  all  to  a  business  man 
indifferent  to  bird-study.  Similarly  descrip- 
tions of  crime  and  vice  have  an  influence 
upon  the  receptive  minds  of  the  criminal  and 
vicious,  or  such  as  are  predisposed  that  way, 
but  no  such  effect  upon  normal  and  balanced 
minds.  By  a  process  of  discrimination  and 
attention,  practical  minds  invite  practical 
suggestions,  poetic  minds,  poetic  sugges- 
tions, sensual  minds,  sensual  suggestions,  sick 
minds,  invalid  suggestions,  and  healthy  minds 
those  of  health. 

By  habit,  the  impression  of  the  subconscious, 
and  the  establishment  of  neural  paths,  we  thus 
become  more  receptive  to  one  class  of  sugges- 
tions than  to  another.  Through  conscious 
and  directed  efforts,  however,  any  mind  may 
be  made  less  susceptible  to  one  class  of  ideas 


Suggestion  165 

and  increasingly  receptive  to  an  entirely 
different  class.  This  is  what  happens  when  a 
man  is  seen  to  reform  and  ennoble  his  charac- 
ter; and  he  is  not  much  of  a  man  who  has  not 
done  this  at  some  time  in  his  life  and  is  not  still 
doing  it  to  some  extent.  He  simply  becomes 
enamoured  of  a  new  set  of  ideas,  more 
wholesome  and  beautiful  or  more  charitable 
and  unselfish  than  his  previous  ones,  and 
begins  suggesting  them  to  himself  until  his 
field  of  consciousness  is  dominated  by  them 
and  his  character  and  personality  show  the 
result.  Very  likely  the  change  is  first  suggested 
to  him  by  something  external  to  himself — a 
person  or  a  book.  Good  men  and  women 
and  good  books  thus  sow  seeds  of  regeneration 
in  receptive  minds  which,  under  the  stimu- 
lating effect  of  auto-suggestion,  may  develop 
and  bear  fruit  in  turn.  In  so  far  as  the 
stream  of  consciousness  may  be  said  to  be 
fixed  at  all,  it  is  the  character  of  the  man 
which  establishes  the  banks  through  which 
his  thought  shall  flow.  If  that  character  be 
strong  and  pure,  he  need  have  little  fear  that 
adverse  suggestion  shall  alter  the  course  of 
the  stream  of  consciousness. 

Thus  the  power  of  suggestion  is  merely  the 
power  of  thought  to  arouse  mental  response. 


i66  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

Its  application  to  therapeutics  lies  in  the 
fact  that,  as  consciousness  is  motor  and  every 
thought  results  in  a  nervous  reaction,  sug- 
gestion may  be  wisely  framed  and  consciously 
directed  toward  a  definite  end.  Both  mental 
and  physical  regeneration  may  thus  be  ac- 
complished by  suggestion.  If  I  meet  you 
on  the  street  and  merely  suggest  to  you  that 
you  look  very  well,  that  you  appear  in  perfect 
condition,  that  you  are  the  picture  of  health, 
my  suggestion  is  not  without  effect — whether 
audible  or  mental.  And  if  I  suggest  to  you 
that  you  look  pale  and  thin  and  show  symp- 
toms of  organic  disease,  you  will  undoubtedly 
feel  worse  for  it,  though  you  may  have  no 
disease  whatever.  There  may  have  been 
no  sufficient  ground  for  either  of  the  above 
suggestions,  but  the  fact  remains  that  a 
mere  suggestion  has  some  power  in  itself 
depending  upon  the  force  of  the  thought  and 
the  receptivity  of  the  mind  to  that  class  of 
ideas. 

Now  the  science  of  suggestion  lies  in  direct- 
ing this  power  in  accordance  with  funda- 
mental truths  of  philosophy  and  psychology, 
that  they  may  be  brought  into  expression  in 
mind  and  body.  The  energy  of  thought 
may  be  compared  to  the  energy  of  electricity, 


Suggestion  167 

which  unharnessed  is  wasteful  and  destructive 
but  when  controlled  by  science  and  directed 
in  accordance  with  the  laws  of  mechanics,  of 
optics,  and  acoustics,  serves  so  admirably 
the  interests  of  man. 

It  may  be  fairly  asked  [says  Dr.  Mason],  has  it 
been  definitely  established  by  experiments  thoroughly 
carried  out,  that  the  mind  can  control  physical, 
physiological  processes  in  the  body — the  process, 
for  instance,  of  digestion  or  lactation?  Can  it  cause 
a  blister  to  be  raised  upon  sound  and  healthy  skin 
without  the  appHcation  of  any  irritant  or  any  medici- 
nal substance  whatever?  These  are  test  examples 
and  they  have  all  been  successfully  carried  out  under 
the  supervision  of  perfectly  honest  and  competent 
witnesses,  many  of  them  under  my  own  observation 
and  treatment. 

A  principle,  then,  is  here  established.  The  mind 
can  be  so  concentrated  upon  a  physiological  process 
as  to  stimulate  that  process  to  unusual  activities, 
so  as  to  produce  curative  effects,  and  even  to  super- 
abundant activity,  so  as  to  produce  pathological  ef- 
fects or  disease.  .  .  .  The  powerful  effect  of  suggestion, 
especially  in  the  hypnotic  condition,  is  in  this  manner 
fully  demonstrated.  It  is  a  fact,  and  a  fact  of  greater 
significance  and  greater  value  as  a  curative  agent 
simply,  than  any  other  single  fact  in  the  recent 
history  of  therapeutics.  For,  not  only  is  it  curative 
in  physical  ailments,  but  also  in  mental  and  moral 
deficiencies  and  criminal  tendencies. 

We  are  here  concerned  with  suggestion  only, 


i68  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

not  with  hypnotism;  but  whatever  may  be 
said  for  or  against  the  latter,  it  must  be 
admitted  that  it  has  contributed  to  our 
knowledge  of  the  relation  of  mind  and  body 
and  that  it  has  established  telepathy  as  a 
fact;  just  as  we  must  admit  that  the  study 
of  the  pathology  of  the  brain  and  nervous 
system  has  certainly  afforded  us  additional 
proofs  of  the  power  of  the  mind  over  the 
organs  of  the  body  and  their  several  functions 
which  could  not  easily  have  been  arrived  at  in 
any  other  way. 

Referring  to  hypnotism  once  more  in  this 
connection,  it  should  be  understood,  that  in 
suggestion  as  used  by  the  exponents  of 
mental  healing  there  is  no  effort  whatever 
to  impress  one  will  upon  another  or  to  control 
in  any  way  the  will  of  the  patient.  The  true 
metaphysician  does  not  will  you  to  do  any- 
thing, nor  does  he  endeavour  in  the  least  to 
make  his  own  personality  dominant  to  yours. 
Rather  does  he  aim  to  keep  his  relation  free 
from  the  influence  of  personal  motives.  It 
is  not  he,  nor  his  point  of  view,  nor  his  per- 
sonal bias  which  is  to  influence  and  benefit 
the  patient,  but  that  impersonal  truth  to 
which  he  acts  merely  in  the  capacity  of  an 
instrument  in  framing  and  suggesting  it  to 


Suggestion  169 

the  patient's  mind.  And  he  can  honestly 
affirm  as  his  attitude  to  those  he  essays  to 
benefit:  "The  words  that  I  speak  unto  you 
I  speak  not  of  myself:  but  the  Father  that 
dwelleth  in  me,  He  doeth  the  works,**  or 
in  philosophic  language — ''The  truth  shall 
free  the  mind  from  its  false  beliefs  and  estab- 
lish normal  reactions  in  the  body  as  a  result. 
I  suggest  truth  to  you  with  the  knowledge 
that  when  this  truth  itself  possesses  your 
mind -and  replaces  the  error,  it  must  manifest 
itself  outwardly."  Let  it  be  clearly  under- 
stood that  in  the  New  Thought,  to  cure  a 
mental  or  physical  trouble  means  to  remove 
the  cause  and  not  merely  to  make  one  tem- 
porarily oblivious  to  it,  by  changing  the 
current  of  thought.  The  cause  may  be 
moral  and  in  that  case  moral  regeneration 
is  the  only  cure.  As  long  as  a  false  belief  is 
entertained,  so  long  is  the  nervous  system 
liable  to  the  particular  reaction  which  that 
state  of  mind  induces.  You  have  cured 
nothing  by  drugging  the  nerves  with  morphia, 
neither  have  you  cured  by  merely  suggesting 
health  or  strength,  unless  the  false  mode  of 
thinking  or  the  immoral  tendencies  have  first 
been  replaced  by  true  concepts  and  normal 
states.     The  desire  for  drink,  or  some  other 


1 70  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

hidden  cause,  underlies  the  drink  habit  and  it 
is  the  desire  which  must  be  eradicated  and 
replaced  by  worthy  motives  before  the  habit 
is  really  overcome.  Suggestion  is  the  means 
of  instituting  changes  in  the  mind  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  truth.  If  I  suggest  to 
you,  for  instance,  that  instead  of  a  material 
being  having  a  ^'soul"  you  are  a  spiritual 
being  clothed  with  a  body,  it  is  not  merely 
the  suggestion  which  may  influence  you, 
but  much  more  the  fundamental  truth  sug- 
gested which  is  potent  once  it  gains  ingress 
to  your  mind.  Truth  is  the  elixir  of  the  mind 
and  false  belief  its  poison.  To  admit  truth 
to  the  mind  is  like  admitting  sunlight  to  a 
room. 


CHAPTER  XII 
AUTO-SUGGESTION 

AS  one  mind  may  impress  another  through 
suggestion,  so  may  the  individual  sug- 
gest to  himself  the  truth  he  desires  to  embody. 
He  may  suggest  to  his  subconscious  mind  that 
physiological  processes  are  normal,  that  nature 
through  the  subconscious  is  doing  her  work 
perfectly,  aided  by  truth  from  the  higher 
centres  (instead  of  being  interfered  with  as 
is  the  case  when  the  mind  entertains  false 
beliefs  and  negative  emotion)  and  this  sug- 
gestion will  not  be  without  effect.  He  may 
suggest  again  to  the  higher  level — the  in- 
tellect— philosophic  truth,  until  it  becomes 
dominated  by  true  concepts,  and  this  is  to 
gradually  admit  light  to  the  dark  chambers 
of  his  own  mind. 

This  is  practical  auto-suggestion  and  it 
will  be  evident  at  once  that  its  value  depends 
on  the  kind  and  quality  of  the  thought 
suggested.     The   solution   of    a   problem   in 

»7i 


172  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

mathematics  depends  upon  a  knowledge  of 
the  principles  of  mathematics,  and  to  satis- 
factorily avail  ourselves  of  the  use  of  auto- 
suggestion we  must  have  an  understanding 
of  the  principles  of  Truth  itself.  Auto-sug- 
r  gestion  is  the  means  open  to  every  mind  to 
/  improve  its  own  estate,  to  establish  harmony 
}  within  itself,  to  perfect  its  conscious  relations' 
^"^ith  God  and  map  and  nature,  and  to  foster 
and  sustain  normal  conditions  in  its  garment 
the  body.  It  is  therefore  the  means  of  self- 
help  advocated  in  this  book,  and  what  has 
been  said  on  practical  psychology  is  but  a 
preparation  for  the  wise  use  of  auto-suggestion, 
while  the  principles  laid  down  in  the  prelimi- 
nary chapters  serve  as  the  basis  of  its  employ- 
ment. Part  III  will  consist  merely  in  a 
general  and  practical  application  to  life— that 
is  to  actual  living — of  what  has  already  been 
said. 

The  value  and  uses  of  suggestion  have  been 
so  thoroughly  implied  in  the  preceding  pages 
that  it  will  only  be  necessary  to  remind 
ourselves  of  the  relation  of  thought  to  the 
brain  and  the  nervous  system,  and  of  mental 
states  and  mental  pictures  to  nervous  re- 
actions. It  should  be  recognised,  however, 
in  regard  to  auto-suggestion,  as  with  sugges- 


Auto-Suggestion  1 73 

tion,  that  it  may  be  of  an  undesirable  as  well 
as  of  a  desirable  character,  and  we  are,  in  fact, 
unwittingly  suggesting  to  ourselves  all  manner 
of  things,  good,  bad,  and  indifferent.  Thus 
we  suggest  that  we  are  tired  or  ill,  that  we 
are  moody  or  unhappy,  or  that  our  relations 
to  people  are  inharmonious  or  selfish.  The 
practical  application  of  auto-suggestion  means 
not  only  that  we  suggest  desirable  states  of 
mind,  but  that  we  inhibit  all  contrary  ideas 
and  aim  to  form  the  habit  of  suggesting  only 
that  which  has  a  basis  in  truth  and  conduces 
to  harmony,  serenity,  and  peace. 

Any  idea  persistently  dwelt  upon,  tends 
to  occupy  the  field  of  consciousness  to  the 
exclusion  of  other  thoughts .  The  monomaniac 
is  thus  the  victim  of  self -hypnosis.  The  at- 
tention becomes  absorbed  in  one  idea  which 
holds  the  mind  spellbound.  Obviously  the 
remedy  lies  in  distributing  the  attention 
among  a  number  of  wholesome  ideas,  and 
thus  breaking  the  spell.  One  of  the  com- 
monest forms  of  self-hypnosis  is  egotism. 
The  egotist  is  chained  to  the  central  thought 
of  himself,  and,  like  a  cow  tied  to  a  tree,  as 
he  goes  round  and  round  this  centre,  his 
rope  grows  shorter,  his  circle  smaller,  until 
at  length  he  finds  himself  held  rigidly  against 


174  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

it.  Another  dominant  idea  with  which  man 
is  prone  to  hypnotise  himself  is  fear.  The 
fearful  state  easily  becomes  chronic  and  the 
subjection  of  the  mind  to  fear  is  as  literally 
hypnosis  as  is  the  subjection  to  the  will  of 
another.  Let  him  who  boasts  his  superiority 
to  hypnotism,  observe  to  what  extent  he  may 
be  self-hypnotised  by  dominant  negative 
ideas  and  by  his  prejudices.  Chronic  invalids 
frequently  have  the  habit  of  suggesting  nega- 
tive ideas  to  themselves  which  not  only  depress 
mental  states  but  seriously  interfere  with 
physiological  processes.  Invalidism  is  with 
some  merely  a  habit,  the  result  of  habitual 
negative  auto-suggestion  and  the  hypnosis 
of  selfishness; — with  some,  but  by  no  means 
with  all,  for  there  are  many  whose  cheerful- 
ness and  unselfishness  is  an  example  worth 
following.  It  may  happen,  however,  that 
the  latter  are  self-hypnotised  by  the  idea 
of  resignation  and  are  resigned  to  conditions 
which,  did  they  but  know  it,  are  of  their  own 
making  and  could  be  overcome  by  mental 
effort  in  the  right  direction. 

With  this  glance  at  the  unfavourable  side 
of  auto-suggestion,  let  us  now  consider  its 
beneficial  aspects  and  its  practical  value. 
The  fact  is  we  are  constantly  indulging  in 


Auto-Suggestion  175 

auto-suggestion,  therefore  let  us  use  it  wisely 
and  to  our  advantage  and  refrain  from  using 
it  to  our  disadvantage.  To  centre  the  attention 
much  upon  oneself  is  a  mistake  and  is  likely 
to  have  a  similar  result  to  pressing  the  finger 
in  the  eye.  Consciousness  should  rest  on  the 
body  as  little  as  possible,  for  it  functions 
more  normally  under  the  subconscious  alone 
than  under  the  anxious  supervision  of  con- 
sciousness. When  it  is  advisable,  however, 
to  focus  the  mind  upon  oneself,  let  it  be 
done  systematically  and  in  accordance  with 
principle,  precisely  as  one  would  attempt 
the  solution  of  a  problem  by  the  rules  of 
mathematics.  Auto-suggestion  is  only  truly 
efficient  when  it  is  thus  systematic  and  the 
thought  is  concentrated.  Let  the  idea  which 
you  wish  to  impress  be  brought  to  a  focus 
through  your  mind,  as  rays  of  light  are  con- 
centrated by  a  burning-glass.  This  is  con- 
centration and  it  is  simple  enough,  requiring 
only  constant  practice.  To  distracted  people, 
unacctistomed  to  concentrate  their  attention 
upon  anything,  it  may  seem  very  difficult, 
but  all  that  is  necessary  in  any  case  is  prac- 
tice, and  the  more  it  is  practised  the 
easier  it  becomes.  It  is  good  mental  dis- 
cipline and  regarded  merely  in  this  light  is 


176  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

worth  while,  for  it  strengthens  and  refreshes 
the  mind. 

Choose  a  favourable  time  and  place,  assume 
a  comfortable  position  wherein  the  body 
makes  no  demand  upon  consciousness,  and 
breathe  deeply  and  regularly.  Exclude  all 
thoughts  not  bearing  upon  the  subject  and 
subdue  the  mind  with  firmness  and  patience 
until  you  have  it  well  in  hand,  as  you  would 
hold  in  a  horse  and  keep  him  to  a  steady  gait. 
When  you  have  brought  the  field  of  conscious- 
ness to  the  desired  condition,  frame  for  your- 
self a  statement  of  the  truth  you  wish  to 
impress,  as  clearly,  concisely,  and  forcibly 
as  possible. 

The  nature  of  the  suggestion  will  depend 
of  course  upon  the  particular  truth  it  is  de- 
sirable to  bring  into  realisation.  In  general 
bear  in  mind  that  the  Soul — ^which  we  may 
designate  the  real  man — is  itself  wisdom, 
love,  power,  health,  inasmuch  as  it  is  one 
with  God  the  Source  of  all  life  and  intelligence, 
and  that  it  is  only  the  stream  of  consciousness 
— the  personal  self — which  is  conditioned  by 
illusions  and  false  concepts.  You  are  to 
purify  this  stream  of  consciousness  by  sug- 
gesting— ^pouring  in,  as  it  were — thoughts 
of  absolute  truth.     Truth  and  error  with  re- 


Auto-Suggestion  1 77 

ference  to  a  given  subject  can  no  more  occupy 
the  mind  at  the  same  time  than  light  and 
darkness  can  fill  a  room. 

Consider  the  nature  of  man:  first  the  self- 
as-knower — the  Soul — deathless,  diseaseless, 
free,  and  pure;  the  self-as-known,  the  stream 
of  consciousness  and  its  submerged  depths — 
for  ever  changing ;  lastly  the  body,  an  outer 
garment  built  from  within  and  picturing  the 
dominant  state  of  the  mind.  When  the 
thoughts  and  feelings  of  this  personal  self 
are  maintained  in  perfect  harmony  with  the 
Soul,  then  is  consciousness  dominated  by 
absolute  truth  which  manifests  itself  in  the 
body  as  health.  This  is  harmony — ^to  realise 
the  Soul  in  consciousness,  to  be  conscious  of 
God,  that  is  to  say.  Good,  alone.  Only  in 
consciousness  are  we  separated  from  God 
and  this  separation  occurs  whenever  we 
think  thoughts  other  than  good.  Love  and 
good  are  real,  like  light ;  evil  and  error  are  un- 
real like  darkness,  are  merely  the  absence  of 
light.  Consciously  fill  your  mind  with  Hght, 
therefore,  and  it  cannot  be  dark;  fill  it  with 
harmony  and  it  cannot  be  discordant;  dwell 
upon  reality  and  illusion  will  disappear  from 
consciousness. 

A  truth  held  in  mind  will  gradually  pene- 


178  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

trate  the  subconscious,  and  once  fixed  in 
subconsciousness  will  continue  to  react,  in 
turn,  upon  consciousness.  The  submerged 
part  of  the  average  mind,  normally  in  accord 
with  Nature,  has  been  vitiated  by  ignorant  and 
ill-controlled  thinking  until  it  has  become 
infected  with  fear,  selfishness,  and  discord. 
If  you  wish  to  strengthen  your  muscles  you 
take  up  systematic  exercise,  and  similarly 
if  you  wish  to  invigorate  and  renew  the  mind 
you  must  devote  yourself  to  the  spiritual 
exercise  of  right-thinking. 

As  to  specific  suggestions,  impress  upon  the 
mind  always  that  which  is  desirable,  that 
which  you  wish  to  bring  into  realisation  for 
your  true  welfare.  To  dwell  upon  the  un- 
desirable state  is  to  foster  and  perpetuate  it. 
Remember,  in  this  connection,  that  the  in- 
dividual consciousness  is  but  an  inlet  to  a 
larger  stream,  that  the  strength  or  power  are 
derived  from  a  universal  source.  Therefore 
do  not  limit  yourself  in  consciousness  and 
thus  close  the  inlet,  but  make  greater  de- 
mands and  open  the  doors  wide,  that  energy 
may  flow  into  you.  The  chances  are  you  have 
limited  yourself  in  every  direction  by  your 
thoughts;  now  reverse  the  order  of  thought 
and  work  for  your  salvation — for  this  is  the 


Auto-Suggestion  1 79 

true  salvation  and  the  rational  method  of 
achieving  it.  Affirm  love  in  place  of  fear, 
strength  instead  of  weakness,  courage  instead 
of  despondency,  wisdom  in  place  of  ignorance ; 
good  and  not  evil,  health,  not  disease;  affirm 
and  lose  no  opportunity  of  bringing  it  into 
manifestation  by  acting  in  harmony  with  your 
affirmation.  This,  in  brief,  is  the  rationale 
of  auto-suggestion,  the  scientific  means  of 
self-help  available  to  all. 


CHAPTER  XIII 
FAITH 

IT  may  not  be  generally  recognised  that 
faith  has  any  basis  in  psychology,  but 
such  is  the  fact,  for  faith  is  merely  a  form  of 
thought-energy  in  which  the  will  is  active 
under  the  stimulus  of  suggestion. 

Faith  is  effective — faith  in  an3rthing,  even 
in  nonsense;  how  much  more  potent,  then, 
faith  in  truth,  in  principle.  Faith  in  relics 
has  cured  many,  but  mark  that  the  relic 
can  do  nothing,  it  is  the  faith  itself  in  such 
instances  which  does  all.  Faith  in  a  pill 
may  be  responsible  for  what  the  pill  is  sup- 
posed to  do.  Bread  pills  and  coloured  water 
have  not  infrequently  been  administered  by 
physicians  with  excellent  results.  The  patient 
under  the  belief  that  he  is  taking  a  powerful 
remedy,  and  with  the  assurance  that  it  will 
produce  good  results,  immediately  pins  his 
faith  on  the  supposed  medicine  and  it  ac- 
complishes the  work.     Faith  in  the  doctor, 

I  So 


Faith  i8i 

himself,  is  remedial,  and  if  any  are  skeptical 
of  this  we  have  Dr.  Ostler's  authority  for  the 
statement  that  faith  is  a  large  part  of  the 
doctor's  stock  in  trade.  It  is  little  under- 
stood to  what  extent  so-called  remedies  and 
various  methods,  are  merely  pegs  to  hang  our 
faith  on,  and  how  often  the  faith  rather  than 
the  object  of  faith  is  the  active  agent. 

Faith  requires  an  object  upon  which  to  focus 
itself  and  the  nature  of  the  object  will  depend 
upon  the  intelligence  of  the  individual.  As 
the  intellect  develops  we  constantly  transfer 
our  dependence  from  one  set  of  objects  or 
influences  to  another  set.  We  laugh  at  the 
remedies  our  grandfathers  believed  in  and 
our  grandchildren  will  doubtless  laugh  at  us. 
Educate  a  peasant  and  his  faith  in  bones 
and  bits  of  wood  is  gone  and  is  perhaps  re- 
placed by  belief  in  a  Latin  prescription — but 
one  is  little  better  than  the  other.  Relics 
have  been  responsible,  perhaps,  for  the  more 
remarkable  cures.  To  an  intelligent  man, 
however,  the  relic  is  of  no  use,  for  he  can  have 
no  faith  in  it. 

What  then  is  the  psychology  of  faith? 
Simply  this,  that  faith  in  anything  induces 
auto-suggestion.  If  you  believe  that  some- 
thing will  help  you,  you  constantly  suggest 


i82  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

this  idea  to  yourself,  you  endow  it  with  seem- 
ing power,  the  power  meanwhile  being  resident 
in  your  own  mind.  You,  therefore,  uncon- 
sciously set  your  own  forces  to  work,  and  the 
more  active  the  faith,  the  more  power  do  you 
unlock,  arousing  emotion,  forming  mental 
pictures,  and  of  necessity  inducing  nervous 
reactions  which  may  be  of  a  wholly  beneficial 
order.  You  may  not  consciously  suggest  to 
yourself  but  you  set  the  subconscious  to  work. 
To  borrow  a  phrase,  you  electrify  or  magnetise 
the  subconscious  by  your  objective  faith,  as 
you  might  magnetise  an  iron  core  by  passing 
a  current  through  the  surrounding  coil.  Once 
faith  is  aroused,  the  subconscious  becomes 
active. 

The  trouble  is,  we  have  so  little  faith  in 
ourselves,  while  we  are  so  ready  to  have  faith 
in  anything  that  is  suggested  to  us  with 
sufficient  plausibility.  Yet  in  most  cases  it 
is  our  own  latent  powers  which  are  unlocked 
and  which  work  for  good  or  ill  according  to 
their  direction.  Quite  as  much  as  any  fact 
in  psychology  this  admonishes  man  to  be 
his  own  friend,  to  foster  his  talent  power 
and  rely  upon  it,  and  have  faith  in  that,  rather 
than  in  the  mere  objects  which  inadvertently 
serve  to  unlock  that  power. 


L 


Faith  183 

Self-trust  is  thus  a  sustaining  force,  and  lack 
of  it  may  defeat  the  ends  to  be  attained.  To 
have  faith  in  yourself  is  to  be  your  own 
friend ;  to  be  faithless  to  yourself  is  to  be  your 
ov/n  foe.  Faith  should  be  the  accompani- 
ment of  all  thought  directed  towards  definite 
ends,  for  it  of  necessity  gives  added  power — 
the  power  of  conscious  and  subconscious 
suggestion.  Such  a  mental  state,  where  the 
will,  directed  towards  the  accomplishment 
of  a  purpose,  is  accompanied  by  faith  in  the 
ability  to  accomplish  that  result,  is  true 
prayer — ^the  only  kind  of  prayer,  at  any  rate, 
which  has  any  basis  in  practical  psychology. 
''According  to  your  faith  be  it  unto  you" — 
and  there  appear  to  be  good  grounds  for 
the  saying. 

While  faith  is  often  inconsistent  with 
reason,  it  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  faith 
is  a  mental  force  in  itself  and  the  object  of 
faith  merely  serves  to  evoke  that  power. 
In  this  respect  a  relic  which  may  serve  with 
an  ignorant  peasant,  or  an  incantation  which 
may  answer  with  a  savage,  will  of  course  fail 
utterly  with  an  educated  man.  The  more 
one  pursues  science  and  philosophy,  the  less 
faith  will  he  have  in  those  things  which  appeal 
to  the  ignorant ;  and  so  it  sometimes  happens 


i84  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

that  highly  trained  scientific  minds  have  very 
little  faith  left  in  anything.  This  is  not  un- 
natural in  the  course  of  mental  evolution,  but 
at  the  same  time,  it  is  an  unfortunate  state 
of  mind  to  be  in.  Man  cannot  live  and  work 
to  advantage  without  faith,  and  the  growing 
philosopher,  having  discovered  the  nature  of 
those  things  which  attract  and  hold  the  ig- 
norant and  the  thoughtless,  should  make  haste 
to  establish  his  faith  on  philosophic  and 
reasonable  grounds.  Let  him  put  his  faith 
in  that  alone  which  is  unchangeable,  namely  in 
God,  the  source  of  all  life,  intelligence,  power; 
upon  Truth  which  is  the  same  to-day,  to- 
morrow, and  forever,  and  upon  his  own 
essential  Self  which  is  one  with  God,  uncondi- 
tioned and  immutable,  while  the  shifting 
stream  of  consciousness  changes  with  its 
varying  beliefs. 

It  will  be  readily  seen  that  faith  in  eternal 
Principle  and  in  oneself  as  the  normal  in- 
strument of  divine  activities  is  a  large  factor 
in  the  philosophy  of  self-help.  Hold  fast  to 
your  faith  then,  but  transfer  it,  from  objective 
uncertainties  and  the  creations  of  the  im- 
agination, to  subjective  realities.  You  have 
lost  faith  in  bones  and  relics,  in  the  anthropo- 
morphic God   of    theology,    and    sooner  or 


Faith  185 

later  you  must  lose  faith  in  drugs.  Establish 
your  faith  now  in  the  true  God  who  is  Spirit 
and  dwell  in  the  normal  consciousness  that 
the  self-as-knower,  the  Soul,  is  one  with 
God  and  hence  likewise  unconditioned. 

It  is  wisdom,  freedom,  and  purity  as  God 
is  wisdom,  freedom,  and  purity.  All  mutations 
are  in  the  stream  of  consciousness,  and  in  the 
body  which  reflects  its  changes.  Aim  ever 
to  maintain  your  consciousness  in  harmony 
with  the  Soul,  and  whenever  the  mind  wanders 
from  truth,  as  wander  it  will,  bring  it  back 
by  means  of  auto-suggestion  to  those  eternal 
principles  by  which  God  finds  expression 
in  us.  Do  this  in  the  abiding  faith  that  those 
principles  are  sufficient  for  all  the  needs  of 
human  life  and  activity  and  that  man's 
departure  from  them  through  ignorance  or 
perversion  is  the  one  cause  of  his  troubles. 
Have  faith  that  the  truth  will  make  you  free 
and  in  truth  take  your  refuge. 


PART  III 
PHILOSOPHY  OF  LIFE 


187 


CHAPTER  I 
CHARACTER 

WE  may  now  inquire  as  to  what  philosophy 
of  life  is  to  be  deduced  from  the  fore- 
going facts  of  psychology  and  what  effect 
a  recognition  of  these  facts  and  principles 
may  be  expected  to  produce  upon  character 
and  upon  health.  Such  a  recognition  must 
influence  at  once  the  nature  of  our  views 
and  lead  us  to  substitute,  to  the  best  of  our 
ability,  controlled  for  uncontrolled  thinking, 
true  in  place  of  false  concepts.  It  will,  in 
short,  imbue  us  with  the  dominant  idea  of  self- 
control,  that  is  to  say,  control  and  direction 
of  the  thought-force;  for  it  can  hardly  fail  to 
reveal  more  clearly  the  nature  of  cause  and 
effect  and  our  own  responsibility  in  the  matter. 
Much  that  we  have  heretofore  assumed 
to  be  altogether  independent  of  ourselves, 
much  that  we  have  laid  at  the  door  of  *'bad 
luck"  or  attributed  to  the  inscrutable  acts 

of  Providence,  will  now  appear  in  its  true  light 

189 


190  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

as  merely  the  objective  effect  of  a  subjective 
cause  for  which  we  ourselves  are  responsible. 
If  it  has  been  our  habit  to  defend  ourselves 
with  the  excuse  that,  as  we  did  not  know  that 
two  and  two  made  four  we  were  not  to  blame 
for  our  miscalculations,  we  must  now  admit 
that  it  is  our  business  to  know  it,  and  that 
we  cannot  too  soon  acquaint  ourselves  with 
the  fact,  that  in  future  our  calculation 
may  be  correct.  If  again  we  have  been  in- 
clined to  blame  others  for  our  troubles, 
we  must  now  admit  that,  while  this  may  occa- 
sionally be  justified,  it  is  not  the  rule  but  the 
exception,  and  that  ignorance  and  fear  are  our 
real  enemies;  that  we  have  stood  in  our  own 
light  and  created  most  of  our  own  troubles. 
A  recognition  of  the  simple  fact  alone  that 
all  consciousness  is  motor  cannot  fail  to  have 
a  considerable  influence.  But  the  realisation 
of  the  deeper  fact  that,  as  there  are  principles 
of  mathematics,  so  there  are  principles  of 
Truth  absolute,  which  underly  our  relation 
to  God  and  to  man,  and  that  failure  to  comply 
with  these  in  our  attitude  to  life  must  mani- 
fest itself  in  both  mental  and  physical  in- 
harmony,  inasmuch  as  health  is  harmony  and 
harmony  is  conformity  to  principle — such  a 
realisation  is  the  most  practical  awakening 


Character  191 

which  can  come  to  the  mind.  What  is  the 
basic  fact  of  our  philosophy  ?  It  is  this :  that 
the  self-as-knower — the  Soul — is  one  with 
God,  the  universal  knower,  the  subject  of 
knowledge;  whereas  the  self -as- known,  the 
stream  of  consciousness,  is  the  agent,  subject 
to  development  and  control,  and  the  body 
merely  its  garment  or  material  envelope. 
This  means  that  God  is  immanent  in  us,  that 
we  may  appropriate  the  divine  energy  in 
the  measure  of  our  capacity  to  realise  it  in 
consciousness  and  give  it  expression  in  our 
lives. 

Man  is  a  spiritual  being  clothed  with  a  body, 
and  a  character  fashioned  upon  this  basis  is 
necessarily  both  superior  to  and  more  stable 
than  one  fashioned  after  the  false  postulate 
that  man  is  a  material  being  and  that  he  may 
or  may  not  have  a  "soul." 

Mind  is  the  potter  and  matter  the  clay  and 
not  only  was  the  potter  destined  to  mould  the 
clay  according  to  his  will,  but  to  conform  his 
will  to  the  divine  Will  which  is  wisdom. 
The  implication  is  not  alone  the  ultimate 
triumph  of  mind  over  matter  but  the  victory  of 
the  higher  over  the  lower  in  consciousness, 
of  positive  over  negative  states  of  mind,  of 
love  over  fear  and  selfishness,  of  wisdom  over 


192  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

ignorance.  Our  evolution  is  in  consciousness 
alone  and  is  reflected  in  matter.  The  Soul 
with  God  stands  firm.  It  is  never  that  which 
we  know  but  always  that  by  which  we  are 
able  to  know.  Our  salvation  is  evolution 
towards  the  light,  an  uncovering  of  the  Soul; 
salvation  is  in  wisdom  alone. 

No  one  grows  wise  by  another's  thinking 
and  surely  there  is  no  clearer  indication  of 
character  than  the  persistent  effort  to  think 
for  oneself.  For  this  purpose  our  minds, 
the  higher  centres  at  least,  were  provided 
us — that  we  should  do  our  own  thinking. 
Only  weak  minds  will  be  satisfied  with  ready- 
made  thought  as  only  weak  stomachs  can 
sustain  themselves  on  predigested  food.  The 
most  profound  influence  of  our  philosophy 
upon  character  will  be  an  awakening  to  the 
necessity  of  using  our  minds  instead  of 
allowing  them  to  be  used  by  stronger  men- 
talities. It  shall  lead  one  to  ask  himself — 
'*Do  I  think,  or  do  others  think  for  me? 
Am  I  really  the  agent  of  my  acts,  or  am  I  the 
puppet  of  religious  dogmas,  medical  super- 
stitions, and  of  race  beliefs  ? ' '  This  attitude  of 
intellectual  self-reliance  will  lead  one  to 
speedily  dismiss  some  false  beliefs  long  enter- 
tained because  never  examined,  beliefs  with 


Character  193 

reference  to  God  and  to  the  nature  of  man 
himself.  Furthermore,  those  true  precepts 
which  may  have  been  instilled  in  his  mind 
by  parents  and  teachers,  he  shall  now  make 
his  own  for  the  first  time  and  thus  truly  incor- 
porate them  in  his  moral  life  by  giving  them 
the  sanction  of  his  own  reason. 

If  this  intellectual  self-reliance  and  this 
recognition  of  cause  and  effect  in  our  mental 
life  implies  added  responsibility,  it  also 
insures  an  increased  sense  of  power.  As  we 
are  said  commonly  to  use  but  one  sixth  of 
our  lung  capacity  in  breathing,  so  we  avail 
ourselves  of  but  a  small  fraction  of  that  power 
which  is  latent  in  us.  The  natural  result  of 
a  better  understanding  of  oneself  is  the  desire 
to  utilise  the  power  revealed  and  to  overcome 
the  obstacles  which  may  prevent,  and  this 
is  to  work  for  the  efficiency  and  perfection  of 
character.  Self-reliance  is  the  basis  of  char- 
acter and  many  a  man,  be  it  said,  who  is 
esteemed  strong  and  wise  is  merely  depending 
upon  the  strength  of  others  and  would  fall 
if  his  crutch  were  removed.  Always  we  work 
out  our  own  salvation.  We  acquire  mental 
power  by  thinking  for  ourselves,  as  we  gain 
muscular  strength  by  the  exercise  of  our 
muscles — not  by  reading  about  exercise.    Only 

13 


194  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

that  truth  which  we  have  made  our  own 
sustains  us  in  time  of  need. 

When  we  have  perceived  the  right  road, 
we  must  also  have  the  will  to  follow  or  our 
perception  is  of  little  practical  value.  Psychol- 
ogy has  shown  us  how  desirable  it  is  to  be 
our  own  friends  in  a  very  literal  sense — to 
control  our  thoughts,  to  establish  wholesome 
and  friendly  habits,  and  to  make  the  nervous 
system  an  ally.  The  agent  in  accomplishing 
this  is  the  will,  and  character  has  been  defined 
as  **a  completely  fashioned  will,"  but  self- 
control,  in  the  light  of  the  clearer  under- 
standing of  the  relation  of  mind  and  body 
which  psychology  makes  possible,  has  received 
an  added  significance.  It  means  not  a  super- 
ficial control  alone  but  a  control  and  direc- 
tion of  the  thought-force  itself;  it  means 
the  promotion  of  sane  and  healthful  thinking 
and  the  inhibition  of  unwholesome  thoughts 
and  emotions.  Right-thinking  becomes  the 
dominant  motive  of  the  balanced  and  spiritual 
mind.  It  not  only  precedes  right  conduct 
but  it  also  precedes  healthy  nervous  reactions. 

Now  right-thinking  is  based  on  truth  and 
sincerity.  It  rests  on  no  such  flimsy  founda- 
tion as  religious  cant,  philosophic  pretension, 
or  mere  cleverness.     The  heart  must  be  right 


Character  195 

or  all  else  is  vain.  The  love  of  truth,  the 
love  of  righteousness,  the  love  of  one's 
fellows,  are  the  elements  of  true  character. 
We  have  no  new  doctrine  of  ethics  to  expound 
but  our  psychology  throws  a  new  light  on 
the  subject.  We  must  not  only  do  good, 
we  must  think  good ;  we  must  think  of  others  as 
we  would  have  them  think  of  us — and  better. 
Good  must  rule  the  mind;  we  must  ally 
ourselves  with  the  good  wherever  found, 
and  with  the  good  alone.  Love  is  the  normal 
attitude  to  God  and  to  mankind.  The  more 
we  love  the  more  Godlike  we  are,  for  God 
is  Love  and  Love  is  life.  To  exclude  love 
from  consciousness,  to  live  a  loveless  existence, 
is  to  separate  oneself  in  mind  from  God — ^to 
dwarf  and  stultify  oneself.  While  character 
may  be  defined  as  a  completely  fashioned 
will,  it  is  surely  more:  namely,  a  will  fashioned 
in  accordance  with  the  good,  the  beautiful, 
and  the  true,  a  will  which  leads  us  to  preserve 
the  integrity  of  our  minds  by  thinking  in 
accordance  with  the  dictates  of  wisdom. 

The  conception  of  the  nature  of  man  and 
his  relation  to  God  here  entertained  is,  of 
course,  that  which  should  have  the  most  pro- 
found influence  upon  character,  for  it  is  the 
fundamental  postulate  of  spiritual  philosophy 


196         Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

— the  same  philosophy  which  Jesus  preached 
when  he  said : 

**  I  and  my  Father  are  one.'* 
"The  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  within.** 
**It  is  the  spirit  that  quickeneth:  the  flesh 
profiteth  nothing/* 

The  body  is  an  instrument  merely,  good 
in  its  place  and  normally  an  efficient  servant 
of  the  spiritual  master.  It  is  neither  to  be 
pampered  nor  to  be  condemned,  but  to  be 
kept  in  its  place  and  made  to  perform  its  true 
functions.  The  body  is  not  the  man  nor  is 
sensation  life;  this  is  merely  the  point  of 
view  of  the  unregenerate  man,  from  which 
happily  he  may  be  reborn  into  the  realisation 
of  man  as  spirit  and  life  as  righteousness  and 
peace. 

Character  is  always  acquired.  It  is  true 
some  are  better  bom  than  others,  but  in  any 
case  it  is  a  question  of  what  we  do  with  our 
talent.  Of  those  who  have  much,  much  is 
expected.  The  main  purpose  of  this  book 
is  to  reveal  to  you,  whoever  you  are  and 
whatever  your  circumstances,  how  great  is 
the  latent  power  within  you,  if  you  will  de- 
velop it ;  how  great  is  the  supply  if  you  will 
avail  yourself. 

God  is  the  Source  of  your  life,  your  will, 


Character  197 

your  intelligence.  The  philosophy  of  life, 
the  secret  of  strength,  is  to  bring  God  into 
your  life  and  consciousness.  The  highest 
self-reliance  is  reliance  upon  the  Soul  which 
is  God  in  us.  To  bring  God  into  conscious- 
ness means  to  lead  a  clean  and  upright  life 
and  to  persistently  dwell  upon  love  and  truth, 
— to  establish  the  normal  habit  of  right- 
thinking. 


CHAPTER  II 
IDEALS 

CHARACTER  is  formed  by  the  will  in 
accordance  with  the  ideals  we  hold 
in  mind.  Putting  aside  all  mediaeval  dogmas 
of  future  reward  and  punishment,  let  us  re- 
member that  heaven  or  harmony  is  within 
and  is  virtually  a  state  of  mind — a,  conscious- 
ness, that  is,  which  is  normal  in  its  attitude 
to  the  several  relations  of  life,  which  is  freed 
from  false  beliefs  and  dominated  by  true 
concepts.  Every  hour  is  the  hour  of  judg- 
ment, for  cause  and  effect,  like  gravity,  are 
always  operative.  All  is  in  accordance  with 
Law.  As  a  man  thinketh  so  is  he.  It  is 
impossible,  therefore,  that  we  should  think 
falsely  and  at  the  same  time  express  harmony 
in  our  lives.  Happiness  is  an  effect  of  which 
right-thinking  is  the  cause.  It  lies  only  in 
the  direction  which  wisdom  indicates.  Ob- 
viously it  is  impossible  to  follow  a  wrong  road 
and   reach  the  goal.     Yet   this  is  precisely 

ig8 


Ideals  199 

what  men  try  to  do  in  the  world  and  their 
lives  end  in  disappointment  at  not  reaching 
that  destination  which  lay  in  the  very  oppo- 
site direction. 

Chief  among  these  false  roads,  which  lead 
to  the  destruction  of  our  hopes  at  least,  is 
the  highway  of  selfishness.  Since  happiness 
does  not  lie  in  this  direction  it  is  of  little 
consequence  how  well  we  proceed  on  the 
road ;  we  are  going  the  wrong  way  and  every 
step  takes  us  further  from  the  goal.  Selfish- 
ness is  based  on  a  wrong  ideal  of  life,  the 
idea  of  acquiring  and  achieving  at  the  ex- 
pense of  others,  an  idea  as  false  as  it  is  un- 
profitable, yet  which  underlies  the  commercial 
and  to  a  large  extent  the  social  life  to-day. 
The  whole  force  of  the  world-thought  tends 
to  impress  this  false  ideal  upon  the  individual 
mind,  and  the  money-mad  shove  and  jostle 
one  another  on  the  road  which  leads  to 
despair. 

A  second  highway  is  the  road  of  the  senses, 
and  this  leads  not  to  happiness  but  to  disease. 
This  road  is  followed  under  the  false  idea 
that  sensation  is  life,  that  pleasure  is  happiness, 
and  that  eating  and  drinking  are  ends  in 
themselves.  Alas,  how  bitter  is  the  awakening. 
The  merry  Eaterc  and  Drinkers  of  to-day  are 


200         Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

the  hollow-eyed  spectres  of  to-morrow.  Pleas- 
ure ends  not  in  happiness,  but  in  pain.  The 
tyranny  of  the  senses  means  the  gradual 
atrophy  of  the  higher  spiritual  sense,  the 
loss  of  the  perception  of  values  and  of  aspi- 
ration and  nobility.  It  is  a  levelling  down- 
ward, a  burrowing  into  the  earth  until  little 
by  little  the  light  is  shut  out. 

Of  false  ideals — of  wrong  roads — ^there  is 
no  end.  And  the  point  is,  that  they  are  not 
snares  to  entrap  the  unwary,  planned  by  some 
enemy  of  the  world,  but  merely  paths  beaten 
by  the  feet  of  mankind  in  its  errant  search  for 
happiness,  and  into  which  each  succeeding 
generation  heedlessly  wanders.  If  you  are 
weary  of  following  the  wrong  road  you  can 
retrace  your  steps.  If  you  have  discovered 
the  right  road,  lose  no  time  in  follov/ing  it, 
for  in  that  direction  alone  is  happiness. 
Remember  that  few  if  any  have  been  bom  with 
their  feet  on  the  true  path.  Those  who  have 
found  it  have  usually  done  so  after  many 
efforts  in  the  wrong  direction.  Take  heart 
then.  I  He  is  twice  a  man  who  is  neither  led 
nor  driven,  but,  having  suffered  in  the  wil- 
derness of  his  ignorance,  turns  at  length  to 
the  light  and  of  his  own  accord  follows  the 
true  wayj 


Ideals  20I 

We  are  but  grown-up  children,  and  like 
children  we  learn  by  experience  that  certain 
ways  are  profitable  and  others  to  be  avoided. 
Experience  and  philosophy  are  two  roads 
to  the  same  point.  Experience  is  the  long 
road  of  the  ignorant;  philosophy  the  short 
cut  of  the  wise.  A  child  does  not  reason  about 
the  fire,  but  bums  himself  and  thenceforth 
avoids  it.  It  is  not  necessary  that  we  should 
always  bum  ourselves  in  order  to  discover  the 
facts,  for  if  we  will  but  use  our  reasoning 
powers,  we  may  often  come  directly  at  the 
truth  without  the  intervening  experience. 
As  a  rule,  however,  we  listen  too  much  to  the 
world  and  give  no  heed  to  the  inner  voice. 
We  are  hypnotised  by  the  world-thought, 
carried  away  in  the  tumultuous  stream  of 
consciousness  and  tossed  in  the  rapids  of 
false  beliefs.  Learn  to  still  the  mind,  that 
truth  may  make  itself  known  through  the 
admonitions  of  the  Soul;  for  the  Soul  is  not 
subject  to  experience:  it  is  God  in  us,  God 
who  is  absolute  Love  and  Truth. 

To  hold  true  ideals  in  mind  is,  to  that  ex- 
tent, to  be  one  in  consciousness  with  truth — 
to  bridge  the  gulf  which  exists  in  conscious- 
ness alone  between  God  and  the  individual. 
This  is   the  philosophic   at-one-ment   which 


202  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

means  harmony,  and  the  result  of  such  har- 
mony must  be,  not  only  peace  of  mind  but 
nervous  reactions  conducive  to  health.  Let 
us  bear  in  mind  always  that  health  is  har- 
mony and  the  efficient  means  of  its  realisation 
is  by  the  impression  of  true  ideals  through 
auto-suggestion;  as  the  means  of  solving  a 
problem  in  mathematics  is  to  bring  to  mind 
the  principles  and  apply  them.  The  ideal 
state,  of  course,  would  be  habitual  right- 
thinking,  the  habit  of  always  reacting  upon 
true  ideals.  Obviously  no  lifetime  is  long 
enough  for  such  perfection.  But  no  matter 
how  distant  the  goal,  the  first  and  chief 
consideration  is — are  we  travelling  in  the 
right  direction? 

To  meditate  upon  true  ideals,  to  clearly 
frame  them  in  mind  and  concentrate  the 
thought  upon  them  to  the  exclusion  of  all  else, 
is  literally  to  sow  the  seed — and  God  will 
give  the  increase.  As  we  sow  we  shall  reap. 
No  one  has  ever  gathered  figs  from  thistles.  If 
you  have  been  sowing  thistles  in  your  mind — 
thoughts  of  fear  or  selfishness,  of  weakness  or 
disease — do  not  cry  out  against  Fate  when 
your  crop  matures.  Do  nothing  further  to 
foster  the  growth  of  the  weeds.  Let  your 
weed  patch  die  for  lack  of  recognition  and 


Ideals  203 

meanwhile  do  you  cultivate  new  fields  and 
plant  this  time  good  seed. 

If  we  have  been  all  our  lives  sowing  thistles 
we  cannot  expect  in  a  day  to  reverse  this 
order.  But  if  any  one  will  sow  seeds  of  love 
and  truth,  and  foster  them  with  the  same 
care  and  energy  he  has  devoted  to  thoughts  of 
fear  and  of  error,  he  shall  be  repaid  and  shall 
reap  a  hundred-fold. 

Nature  works  always  for  health.  The  moral 
force  of  the  universe  is  drawing  man  towards 
God,  that  is  towards  the  absolute  Good. 
Pain  and  disease  and  much  of  our  trial  and 
tribulation  result  from  the  obstruction  we 
offer  in  consciousness  to  the  fiow  of  the  divine 
current.  In  our  ignorance,  in  place  of  going 
with  the  current  by  shaping  our  lives  in 
accordance  with  love  and  truth,  we  vainly 
essay  to  resist  and  go  against  the  current. 
The  Law  is  never  broken,  but  we  are  broken 
upon  it.  If  a  sculptor  wishes  to  model  a  per- 
fect form,  he  studies  and  keeps  before  him  a 
perfect  model,  not  a  distorted  one,  and  by 
concentrating  his  attention  and  his  energy 
upon  an  ideal,  he  is  able  to  give  it  correspond- 
ing expression  in  his  work.  Were  he  to  hold 
fixedly  in  mind  the  image  of  a  cripple,  it  would 
be  impossible  for  him  at  the  same  time  to 


204         Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

model  a  perfect  figure.  Similarly  if  the  mind 
is  to  manifest  harmony  within  itself  and  in 
the  body,  it  must  be  centred  upon  true 
ideals  and  must  give  no  room  to  distorted, 
crippled,  or  diseased  thoughts.  By  dwelling 
upon  true  ideals  we  give  free  course  to  Truth 
to  become  operative  in  us ;  we  admit  spiritual 
light  to  the  mind  and  in  that  light  the  dormant 
seeds  of  righteousness,  peace,  and  harmony 
germinate  and  develop.  Truth  is  to  the 
spiritual  world  what  light  is  to  the  vegetable 
world.  False  beliefs  are  literally  a  barrier  to 
the  spiritual  light.  By  our  own  ignorance 
we  veil  the  mind  and  keep  ourselves  in  the 
dusk  of  illusion,  where,  like  plants  in  a  cellar, 
we  can  manifest  only  a  feeble  life. 

Take  the  plant  out  of  the  cellar  and  place 
it  in  the  sunlight  and  it  grows  in  virtue  of  the 
life-force  and  the  action  of  the  sun.  To 
lift  your  thoughts  out  of  the  cellar  of  your 
being  and  bring  them  into  the  air  and  sunshine, 
by  dwelling  upon  true  ideals  of  life,  is  to 
place  yourself  in  the  normal  environment 
where  Truth  works  her  own  way  in  you. 
The  plant  grows  only  in  virtue  of  the  life- 
force  which  is  cosmic,  and  yet  by  merely 
withholding  the  light  we  may  annul  the 
influence  of  a  cosmic  force  as  far  as  it  applies 


Ideals  205 

to  that  particular  plant.  Just  so,  man  is 
destined  for  certain  spiritual  conditions,  his 
outer  life  being  merely  a  reflex  of  his  inner 
adaptation  to  the  normal  ideal.  By  merely 
opposing  the  flimsy  barrier  of  ignorance, 
therefore,  to  the  spiritual  light  of  Truth, 
he  throws  himself  out  of  his  normal  relation 
to  life  and  thrives  no  better  than  a  plant 
denied  the  sunlight. 

The  fundamental  ideals  which  are,  as  it 
were,  the  inlets  of  absolute  Truth  into  the 
individual  consciousness,  are  implied  in  those 
facts  of  metaphysics,  ethics,  and  psychology 
which  we  have  been  considering.  The  ethical 
ideas  in  particular  are  familiar  to  us.  But 
we  have  yet  to  learn  how  far  our  departure 
from  those  ideals  in  thought  is  responsible 
for  our  failure  to  maintain  both  mental 
harmony  and  health.  Systematic  auto-sug- 
gestion of  truth  to  the  mind  is  the  efficient 
means,  however,  of  regulating  the  disordered 
consciousness  and  of  finally  establishing  that 
state  of  harmony  which  is  normal  to  the 
spiritual  life. 


CHAPTER  III 
THE  INNER  LIFE 

/^UR  study  of  the  nature  of  man  and  his 
^-^  relation  to  God  has  shown  us  that  his 
real  life  is  in  spirit.  Our  experience  with  the 
world,  on  the  other  hand,  reveals  how  little 
he  lives  this  true  life  and  how  exclusively  his 
interest  is  absorbed  in  a  material  and  wholly 
objective  life.  More  than  this,  the  experience 
of  most  men  proves  to  them,  sooner  or  later, 
how  unprofitable  is  this  objective  life  if  lived 
to  itself  alone.  Men  do  not  commonly  con- 
sider, however,  how  intimately  their  phil- 
osophy of  life  is  related  to  their  prevailing 
mental  states  and  thus  to  their  health  as  well. 
All  the  cynical  old  men  say  we  can  gather  no 
figs  in  this  life.  They  do  not  take  into  ac- 
count that  they  have  sown  only  thistles. 

If  you  sow  only  to  the  senses,  you  shall 
reap  the  fruit  of  the  senses,  which  is  Pain; 
and  if  you  sow  to  the  material  you  shall  reap 
the  fruit  of  the  material,  which  is  Weariness. 

206 


I 


The  Inner  Life  207 

Man  bom  of  woman  is  of  few  days  and  full 
of  trouble,  but  man  bom  of  the  Spirit  is  of 
eternity.  If  you  worship  Mammon  you  shall 
receive  the  reward  of  Mammon,  which  is 
despair,  and  if  you  worship  God  you  shall 
receive  the  reward  of  God,  which  is  peace. 
Choose,  then,  whom  you  will  serve.  Rest 
assured,  not  in  this  world  or  the  next  is 
there  any  departure  from  the  natural  se- 
quence of  cause  and  effect. 

It  is  true  that  since  we  have  bodies  we  must 
have  a  relation  to  the  material  world.  But 
we  should  establish  a  normal  relation.  The 
body  is  good,  money  is  good,  food  is  good ;  but 
when  we  become  absorbed  in  eating  and  drink- 
ing, or  in  acquiring  money,  or  in  the  care 
of  the  body,  to  the  exclusion  of  our  true  and 
spiritual  aims — then,  and  only  then,  these 
things  are  bad.  One  and  all  are  means, 
never  an  end  in  life,  and  when  we  falsely 
elevate  them  in  consciousness  to  a  ruling 
place,  they  invariably  become  tyrants. 

The  body  has  no  health  or  strength  in  itself. 
It  has  no  life  apart  from  the  informing  mind. 
If  that  consciousness  be  in  harmony  with 
truth  then  will  the  body  show  forth  harmony, 
and  if  that  consciousness  be  discordant  the 
body    must    manifest    discord,,    as   a   mirror 


2o8  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

reflects  an  object.  Now  the  inner  life  is 
a  consecration  to  the  Spirit,  an  effort  to 
establish  and  maintain  a  consciousness  in 
harmony  with  God,  that  is  to  say,  with  love 
and  truth.  Love  casteth  out  fear  and  the 
truth  makes  free,  therefore  in  these  should 
we  take  refuge. 

If  we  have  prepared  a  place  within,  we  may 
retire  at  will  and  find  peace.  But  if  we  have 
cultivated  only  objective  states  of  mind  and 
placed  our  whole  dependence  in  material 
things,  where  shall  we  turn  ?  For  these  things 
must  fail  as  they  have  failed  a  host  of  deluded 
men  before  us.  Each  one  must  prepare  a 
sanctuary  for  himself,  and  in  the  measure 
that  he  has  consecrated  himself  to  the  inner 
life  and  meditated  upon  the  truth,  he  has  made 
it  his  own  and  it  will  serve  him  in  time  of  need. 

In  the  journey  of  life,  every  traveller  comes 
to  the  branching  roads  that  lead  to  the 
Without  and  the  Within.  Every  step  on  the 
road  of  the  Without  takes  us  further  from 
the  centre;  the  road  of  the  Within  leads  to 
God.  The  true  means  of  self-help,  because 
it  is  the  very  purpose  of  life,  is  to  find  our 
centre,  to  bring  our  consciousness  into  har- 
mony with  God;  for  God  is  our  life  and  our 
strength  and  apart  from  God  we  are  nothing. 


The  Inner  Life  209 

God  is  to  man  what  the  Sun  is  to  the  sun- 
beam, what  the  dynamo  is  to  the  individual 
light.  Only  as  we  live  from  within  can  we 
avail  ourselves  fully  of  the  divine  current  of 
which  the  personal  self  is  but  the  means  of 
transmission.  The  spiritual  laws  of  our  being 
supply  the  conditions  under  which  we  shall 
best  transmit  that  power.  Every  departure 
from  these  laws  is  a  disturbance  of  those  con- 
ditions, and  to  live  from  without  is  to  receive 
and  transmit  only  a  fraction  of  the  power 
which  we  should  normally  manifest  in  a 
spiritual  life. 

You  may  think  because  you  attend  all  the 
lectures  and  have  read  the  latest  books  that 
you  are  living  from  within.  Do  not  deceive 
— ypurself.  Silence  and  meditation  are  the 
means  of  following  the  way.  Not  reading 
about  life  but  living  avails.  The  most  any 
one  can  do  for  you  is  to  inspire  you  to  think 
for  yourself  and  to  thus  help  yourself.  Neither 
does  attending  church  mean  that  you  are 
living  from  within.  Repeating  dogmas  by 
rote  will  help  you  no  more  than  it  helps 
the  parrot  who  might  be  taught  to  do  the 
same.  If  you  believe  salvation  comes  through 
the  sacrifice  and  death  of  some  one  else — 
your  brother,   for  instance,   you   are  still  in 


2IO         Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

the  pit  of  ignorance.  Yet  it  is  from  ignorance 
alone  that  we  need  salvation,  and  ignorance 
is  overcome  by  wisdom,  as  darkness  is  dispelled 
by  light;  not  by  another's  wisdom  but  by 
our  own.  Only  the  truth  we  have  realised 
profits  us.  If  your  idea  of  prayer  is  to 
petition  God  to  change  the  order  of  things, 
so  that  water  may  run  up  hill,  you  are  not  on 
the  road  to  salvation.  You  have  no  enemy 
but  your  own  ignorance,  and  not  until  you 
have  realised  the  truer  ideal  of  God  and  a  more 
spiritual  conception  of  prayer  can  you  advance. 
Sentimental  and  theoretical  religions  merely 
blind  us  to  the  necessity  of  helping  ourselves 
and  promoting  our  own  salvation  through 
right-thinking  and  the  realisation  of  the 
true  self.  Self-help  comes  through  practical 
religion — ^the  realisation  of  truth  and  the 
living  in  accordance  with  the  dictates  of 
wisdom.  This  is  the  inner  life — ^not  sancti- 
monious airs  and  prayers  on  the  housetop, 
but  a  life  of  silent  prayer,  in  which  the  con- 
trolling motive  is  the  love  of  truth  and 
righteousness  and  the  effort  to  bring  love 
and  truth  into  expression.  Right-thinking 
is  the  prayer  of  sanity;  thoughts  of  kind- 
ness and  considerateness  the  prayer  of  love; 
thoughts  of  wholeness  the  prayer  of  health. 


The  Inner  Life  211 

In  our  busy  objective  life  with  its  multitu- 
dinous cares  and  its  almost  complete  absorp- 
tion in  things,  no  time  is  left  for  meditation. 
Hence  the  universal  dissatisfaction  and  unrest, 
for  man  can  not  possibly  hve  by  bread  alone. 
The  spiritual  man  is  not  properly  nourished, 
for  the  attention  is  centred  wholly  upon  the 
physical  man  and  his  wants,  or  at  least  upon 
the  intellectual  man.  This  slow  starving  of 
the  spiritual  nature  is  responsible  for  the 
paucity  and  barrenness  of  our  lives.  Do  you  not 
see  that  the  spiritual  is  necessarily  the  founda- 
tion, the  rock  upon  which  the  superstructure 
of  life,  both  intellectual  and  physical,  should 
rest  ?  You  who  are  seeking  a  light  in  the  dark- 
ness, hasten  to  establish  yourself  at  the  centre. 
Lay  the  solid  spiritual  foundation  of  a  new 
and  better  life.  Seek  first  the  Kingdom  of 
God  which  is  righteousness  and  peace.  It  is 
impossible  to  rear  a  perfect  structure  upon 
a  foundation  of  fear,  of  ignorance,  or  of 
selfishness. 

In  right-thinking  we  conserve  the  interests 
of  the  whole  man,  for  we  thus  maintain  both 
body  and  mind  efficient  instruments  of  higher 
activities.  Man  is  a  stream  of  which  God  is 
the  Source.  It  is  by  right-thinking  and  medi- 
tation upon  true  ideals  that  he  shall  keep 


212  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

himself  open  to  that  Source,  and  as  he  does 
this  he  shall  have  life  more  abundantly. 

Learn  to  retire  in  the  silence  and  devote 
some  time  each  day  to  meditation  and  con- 
centration upon  practical  truths,  that  you  may 
renew  and  strengthen  yourself.  Refresh  the 
mind  in  this  manner  as  you  refresh  the  body 
by  the  morning  tub.  Our  strength  lies  in  the 
realisation  of  God  in  us;  our  weakness  in  the 
apparent  separation  which  is  our  delusion. 
In  silence  alone,  in  that  inner  sanctuary  which 
we  have  prepared,  we  shall  come  to  this  deeper 
realisation.  Learn  to  still  the  mind  and  to 
shut  out  the  turbulent  thoughts  of  the  world, 
the  desires  and  fears  and  confusion.  Only 
when  the  surface  of  the  water  is  perfectly 
still  does  it  reflect  the  heavens.  The  disturbed 
consciousness  receives  no  intimations  from 
within.  The  din  and  clamour  of  our  own 
thoughts  may  deafen  us  to  truth.  Inhibit 
therefore;  come  to  rest !  Be  still  and  let  truth 
be  reflected  in  your  mind.  Thus  is  acquired 
that  which  is  superior  to  an  intellectual, 
namely  a  spiritual  relf-reliance.  It  is  thus 
the  foundation  of  life  is  laid  upon  a  rock.  But 
the  life,  the  strength,  and  the  wisdom  are  of 
God,  and  the  highest  self-reliance  is  God- 
reliance.     In  the  light  of  this  fact  the  sonorous 


The  Inner  Life  213 

verses  of  the  Psalmist  have  a  real  and  practical 
significance: 

''  The  Lord  is  my  light  and  my  salvation ; 
whom  shall  I  fear?  The  Lord  is  the  strength 
of  my  life;  of  whom  shall  I  be  afraid?  " 

''  For  in  the  time  of  trouble  he  shall  hide 
me  in  his  pavilion:  in  the  secret  of  his  taber- 
nacle shall  he  hide  me;  he  shall  set  me  up 
upon  a  rock." 

"Wait  on  the  Lord:  be  of  good  courage, 
and  he  shall  strengthen  thine  heart;  wait,  I 
say,  on  the  Lord." 


CHAPTER  IV 

POISE 

THE  application  of  our  practical  philosophy 
and  psychology  has  resulted,  let  us  hope, 
in  a  somewhat  different  attitude  to  the  external 
world  and  in  anew  measure  of  self-control ;  in 
a  greater  intellectual  and  moral  self-reliance ; 
and  lastly  in  a  deeper  spiritual  self-reliance,  a 
nearer  approach  to  God,  through  the  recogni- 
tion that  the  Soul — the  self-as-knower — is  God 
in  us.  The  fruits,  that  is,  are  poise,  freedom, 
and  power  in  some  increased  measure,  and, 
as  a  result,  a  more  stable  health.  The  price 
of  liberty,  be  it  said,  is  eternal  vigilance.  It 
has  been  suggested  that  we  entrust  this 
vigilance  as  much  as  possible  to  the  subcon- 
scious by  forming  habits  of  right-thinking 
with  corresponding  reactions,  and  thus  relieve 
ourselves  of  the  burden  of  a  too  conscious 
supervision. 

Poise  is  the  direct  result  of  self-control; 
but  an  efficient  self-control  is  more  than  mere 

willing  in  itself,  like  that  of  the  stoical  savage, 

214 


Poise  2  IS 

for  it  has  good  grounds  in  both  philosophy 
and  psychology.  Sensation,  as  we  have  seen, 
is  a  mental  state  induced  by  external  vibra- 
tions. We  may  not  be  able  to  control  the 
vibrations ;  we  may  not  be  able  to  control  the 
sensation  to  which  they  give  rise — though 
this  can  be  done  to  some  extent ;  what  we  can 
control  is  our  attitude  to  the  sensation  and 
our  opinion  about  it.  It  is  only  common 
sense,  then,  that  we  should  devote  our  energy 
to  regulating  that  which  is  susceptible  of 
regulation,  while  we  waste  no  time  or  energy 
on  that  which  can  not  be  controlled.  Here 
is  the  ideal  philosophic  state.  With  the  un- 
controlled mind  the  case  is  quite  the  opposite. 
The  weather  may  be  inclement  but,  as  we 
can  not  change  the  weather,  the  reasonable 
thing  is  to  lay  all  stress  upon  our  attitude 
to  it.  It  is  possible  to  change  that  so  as  to 
adapt  ourselves  to  external  conditions.  The 
noise  in  the  street  may  be  annoying.  If  it  can 
not  be  silenced,  let  the  mental  attitude  be  so 
regulated  that  the  noise  ceases  to  be  annoying 
or  is  even  no  longer  heard.  To  control  the 
mental  state,  rather  than  to  uselessly  disturb 
oneself  over  external  conditions  which  can 
not  be  controlled,  is  a  sound  philosophic  the- 
ory capable  of  endless  applications  in  daily 


2i6  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

life — and  of  no  value  unless  it  is  applied. 
We  all  have  our  peculiarities  and  our  suscep- 
tibilities. Some  are  sensitive  to  one  thing, 
some  to  another.  To  be  hypersensitive  to  a 
great  many  things  means  the  gradual  break- 
ing down  of  the  nervous  system,  unless  self- 
control  is  established. 

It  is  never  so  much  the  thing  or  condition 
as  our  attitude  to  it,  which  counts.  The  old 
Stoics  wisely  laid  great  stress  on  not  enlarging 
upon  the  reports  of  our  senses.  If  we  are  in 
danger  of  drowning  we  forget  that  a  few  quarts 
are  sufficient  and  imagine  we  are  to  swallow 
the  ocean.  The  imagination,  like  a  newspaper 
reporter,  exaggerates  the  simplest  fact  and 
garbles  the  news  which  the  senses  bring  in. 
Thus  we  sit  and  tremble  at  the  creations  of 
the  imagination.  We  are  disturbed  far  more 
by  our  opinions  of  a  thing  than  by  the  thing 
itself. 

It  is  very  evident  we  have  it  in  our  power 
to  govern  our  opinions,  to  check  the  tendency 
of  the  imagination  to  exaggeration,  and  to 
maintain  a  normal  mental  attitude  under 
many  circumstances  where  we  are  too  apt  to 
be  controlled  rather  than  to  control.  If  we 
can  not  govern  sensation,  we  can  at  least 
govern  the   attitude   towards   it.     But   can 


Poise  2 1 7 

we  never  hope  to  govern  sensation  itself? 
There  is  reason  to  think  we  may  to  some 
extent.  If  hypnotism  has  done  nothing  else, 
it  has  at  least  thrown  a  new  light  upon  sensation 
and  shown  how  relative  is  its  nature.  In  the 
hypnotic  state  bitter  tastes  sweet,  heat  is 
cold,  and  pain  is  pleasure,  at  the  will  of  the 
hypnotiser.  A  blister  is  raised  on  the  hand 
by  merely  suggesting  it,  it  is  painful  or 
not  in  accordance  with  the  suggestion,  it 
disappears  at  the  time  suggested.  Sensation 
is  thus  shown  to  be  more  or  less  relative  to 
the  whole  mental  state  of  which  it  is  a  phase. 
When  it  fails  to  excite  the  attention,  it  prac- 
tically does  not  exist  to  consciousness.  You 
may  be  so  absorbed  as  not  to  hear  a  bell  or 
not  to  see  what  is  taking  place  directly  in  front 
of  you.  Instances  are  cited  of  soldiers  who,  in 
the  excitement  of  battle,  were  not  aware  they 
had  been  shot.  The  implication  in  all  this 
is  that  we  may  so  learn  to  govern  the  mind 
as  to  be  less  sensitive  to  pain,  as  by  the  culti- 
vation of  the  aesthetic  we  certainly  become 
more  sensitive  to  impressions  of  beauty. 

The  mind  may  be  compared  to  a  glass 
through  which  we  look ;  therefore  attend  to  the 
glass.  The  cloud  which  you  think  you  see 
in  the  sky,  may  be  merely  a  flaw  in  the  lens 


2i8         Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

through  which  you  make  your  observation. 
If  life  appears  dark,  clean  your  glass  and  look 
again.  It  will  appear  brighter  now.  If  an- 
other's character  seems  somewhat  distorted, 
observe  first  if  your  glass  be  not  out  of  focus. 
We  are  often  enough  disturbed  by  apparent 
conditions,  which  are  in  reality  merely  flaws 
in  our  glass.  The  secret  of  poise  is  to  keep 
the  mental  glass  clean  and  in  focus,  and  many 
disturbing  elements  in  life  are  thus  eliminated, 
for  they  have  no  existence  other  than  in  our 
own  minds. 

Poise  is  first  an  inner  adjustment  always. 
If  we  are  not  in  harmony  within  ourselves  we 
can  not  be  in  harmony  with  life.  Our  worst 
foes  are  they  of  our  own  household.  Yet  almost 
invariably  the  blame  is  laid  at  some  one  else's 
door.  To  be  harmonious  within  ourselves 
means  to  have  made  friends  of  will,  habit,  and 
imagination,  to  have  made  an  ally  of  the 
nervous  system,  and  to  have  established  a 
normal  attitude  to  the  various  relations  of  life. 

As  before  remarked,  we  are  attentive 
to  that  in  which  we  are  interested,  or  that 
which  we  fear.  When  we  remove  fear  we  be- 
come less  attentive  to  the  details  which  give 
rise  to  it.  Thus  as  our  interest  is  more  cen- 
tred in  the  things  of  the  spirit  and  we  come 


Poise  219 

ito  live  the  inner  life,  we  are  less  attentive 
'jto  and  therefore  less  disturbed  by  outer  con- 
ditions. The  outer  world  is  by  nature  im- 
permanent. Without,  all  is  change.  Hence 
as  long  as  we  live  to  the  material  we  can  not 
but  be  moved  by  its  mutations.  If  we  are  to 
stand  firm,  we  must  have  our  feet  on  firm 
ground.  Only  that  mind  which  has  found 
its  centre,  remains  serene  when  the  troubled 
winds  of  the  world  blow  over  it,  and  being 
serene,  it  reflects  the  heavens  of  the  inner 
life,  the  infinite  repose  of  the  Soul. 

The  details  of  self-control  and  the  regulation 
of  consciousness  are  merely  practical  psycho- 
logical adjustments,  but  underlying  true  se- 
renity is  the  religious  life  and  faith  in  the 
unchangeable  God  immanent  in  us.  If  you 
believe  God  to  be  subject  to  change  at  your 
whim,  where  will  you  find  any  solid  ground 
in  the  whole  universe?  If  you  have  put  your 
faith  in  the  worldly  life,  how  can  you  have  any 
peace,  for  it  is  a  light  that  fails,  and  you  must 
soon  depart  in  any  event?  If  you  have  not 
opened  your  mind  to  truth,  then  you  are  a 
prey  to  the  false  beliefs  of  the  world-thought, 
to  all  its  fears  and  superstitions,  and  to  the 
mental  disturbance  and  disease  which  ac- 
;  company  them. 


220  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

Truth  alone  satisfies.  Only  in  the  spirit- 
ual life  has  man  ever  found  peace.  This 
is  a  practical  book  and  we  are  dealing  with 
practical  things.  If  the  inner  life  were  not  a 
practical  life  for  to-day,  its  consideration 
would  have  no  place  here.  The  Soul  alone 
is  enduring  and  hence  real  in  a  metaphysical 
sense.  The  spiritual  life  is  that  alone  which 
is  eternal  and  hence  real  and  practical  in 
a  philosophic  sense.  A  machine,  nothing 
in  itself,  is  merely  an  arrangement  to  bring 
energy  into  play.  It  is  of  value  only  as  it 
fulfils  its  purpose.  So  the  personal  self  isf 
an  instrument  merely  to  bring  the  Spirit 
into  manifestation.  The  machine  has  no 
energy  of  itself  but  energy  is  brought  into 
use  through  it.  The  same  may  be  said  of 
man.  He  must  be  properly  adjusted  and 
well-regulated  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of 
his  being  in  order  that  the  divine  current  may 
flow  through  him.  The  mechanism  of  his 
mind  and  body  are  of  value  only  as  they  perform 
their  office .  Unlike  a  machine,  he  has  self- 
consciousness  and  he  may  become  so  absorbed 
in  the  wheels  and  cogs  of  his  mechanism 
that  he  is  oblivious  to  the  purpose  for  which 
they  are  designed. 


Poise  221 

The  real  man  is  not  a  wheel  nor  a  cog  but 
is  one  with  the  energy  which  uses  wheels  and 
cogs,  and  the  conditions  under  which  the 
human  mechanism  does  its  best  work  are 
trust  and  serenity. 


CHAPTER  V 
FREEDOM 

ONE  who  has  recognised  the  principles  upon 
which  the  philosophy  of  self-help  is  based, 
to  say  nothing  of  the  exceedingly  practical 
relation  of  psychology  to  living,  can  hardly 
fail  to  have  as  a  result  a  new  conception,  if 
not  a  new  sense,  of  freedom.  It  will  have 
occurred  to  him  that  the  most  prevalent 
form  of  slavery  is  a  bondage  to  false  beliefs 
and  to  the  tyranny  of  the  senses,  and  that 
this  concerns  him  more  nearly  than  any  Social 
or  Political  tyranny  whatsoever.  He  will 
have  concluded,  therefore,  that  true  freedom 
lies  in  the  perception  of  truth  and  in  perfect 
self-control,  and  that,  as  he  has  been  in  slavery 
to  his  own  sensations  and  opinions,  he  may 
now  be  his  own  liberator. 

As  ignorance  binds,  truth  makes  us  free. 
Every  false  belief  is  a  link  in  the  chain;  but 
wisdom  overcomes  ignorance,  as  love  casts 
out  fear  and  light  dispels  darkness.      Mental 

222 


Freedom  223 

and  moral  evolution  is,  therefore,  always 
in  the  direction  of  freedom.  Defects  of 
character  and  disposition  are  obstacles  we 
interpose  between  ourselves  and  the  light, 
obstacles  to  our  own  progress.  As  these  are 
surmounted  one  by  one,  we  see  more  clearly, 
and  experience  greater  freedom.  Enlighten- 
ment and  freedom  go  hand  in  hand.  False 
belief  shackles  us,  for  whatever  we  believe 
stands  to  us  in  the  place  of  truth,  and  usurpers 
are  never  just  rulers.  The  Astecs  were  van- 
quished more  by  their  own  fear  and  supersti- 
tion than  by  any  prowess  of  the  Spaniards, 
and  were  thus  enslaved  because  of  beliefs 
which  obscured  their  vision  of  the  facts  and 
paralysed  their  activity.  In  like  manner 
we  are  all  victims  to  our  own  fears  and  to 
false  concepts,  which  shut  out  the  light 
of  truth  and  diminish  our  native  energy,  if 
they  do  not  wholly  obstruct  our  activity. 
Let  us  not  blame  either  Society  or  Fate,  then, 
for  conditions  which  are  personal  to  us  and  for 
which  we  have  the  remedy  in  our  own  hands. 
While  there  is  much  discussion  in  regard 
to  hypnotism,  apparently  no  one  has  recog- 
nised the  fact  that  we  are  all  hypnotised,  more 
or  less,  by  the  world-thought.  As  this  is  one 
of  the   factors   which   militates   against   our 


224  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

freedom,  there  is  something  to  be  said  of  the 
necessity  for  d^hypnotisation.  The  import- 
ant question  is  not — can  we  be  hypnotised  or 
no;  but  being  already  in  a  state  of  hypnosis, 
how  are  we  to  be  dehypnotised  and  freed 
from  the  tyranny  of  false  world-beliefs  ?  Some 
are  in  the  profound  hypnotic  sleep  and  their 
acts  are  purely  automatic,  their  opinions 
wholly  reflected.  Others  are  merely  in  a 
drowsy  state  and  are  obedient  only  to  the 
hypnosis  of  certain  ideas  from  which  they 
have  never  been  free.  This  hypnosis,  begun 
by  their  parents,  by  stupid  nurses  and  silly 
Sunday-school  teachers,  has  been  fostered 
ever  since  by  the  verbose  nonsense  of  the 
newspapers  and  by  the  pressure  of  the 
world-thought  itself. 

There  is  only  one  remedy  for  ignorance  and 
that  is  enlightenment,  but  if  you  do  not  know 
you  are  in  slavery  you  will  not  seek  freedom. 
The  most  hopeless  class  intellectually  are  the 
half-educated  who  think  they  are  wise.  And 
in  this  day  of  the  general  diffusion  of  cheap 
knowledge  and  half-truths,  when  every  one 
has  a  smattering  of  information,  and  people 
learn  from  the  newspapers  a  thousand  things 
which  are  not  true,  this  class  is  rapidly  grow- 
ing.     Instead  of  thinking  for  themselves,  as 


Freedom  225 

they  fondly  suppose,  they  are  merely  reflect- 
ing opinions  and  their  point  of  view  depends 
on  the  paper  they  take. 

It  is  a  hopeful  sign  when  any  man  becomes 
intellectually  self-reliant — a  sign  of  developing 
character:  when  he  accepts  a  theory,  because 
on  his  own  recognisance  he  believes  it  to  be 
essentially  good  and  not  simply  because  others 
think  so ;  when  he  essays  to  examine  popular 
notions  concerning  ethics,  religion,  and  hygiene 
and  rejects  or  accepts  them  at  his  own  discre- 
tion. He  is  in  a  fair  way  to  free  himself 
from  much  superstition  and  false  belief 
which  cramps  the  mind  and  inhibits  its  power ; 
he  is  on  the  road  to  intellectual  freedom.  Self- 
trust  is  inseparable  from  character,  and  to 
inspire  any  one  to  a  greater  degree  of  self- 
trust  is  above  all  to  help  him  to  help  him- 
self. If  we  do  not  think  for  ourselves — if 
we  have  the  habit  of  delegating  others  to 
do  our  thinking  for  us — the  fibre  of  the  mind 
grows  flabby  like  an  unused  muscle.  If  we 
are  to  run  a  race  we  must  gradually  strength- 
en the  muscles  and  the  lungs  to  that  end. 
And  if  we  are  to  work  out  our  salvation  we 
must  so  strengthen  the  mind  by  use  that 
we  are  able  to  think  for  ourselves,  to  detect 
error  from  truth,  and  be  able  to  withstand 

IS 


2  26  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

the  pressure  of  the  world-thought  and  the 
foolish  opinions  of  our  neighbours.  It  is 
only  by  thinking  for  ourselves,  and  the  en- 
lightenment which  ensues,  that  we  are  enabled 
to  awake  from  the  hypnotic  trance  in  which 
tradition,  superstition,  and  false  belief  have 
held  us. 

There  is  much  discussion,  too,  concerning 
the  freedom  of  the  will.  So  far  as  our  destiny 
is  cosmic  we  have  no  choice,  inasmuch  as  we 
did  not  elect  that  there  should  be  a  Universe 
or  that  we  should  be  an  integral  part  of  it. 
But  in  so  far  as  we  build  our  own  characters, 
and  by  the  quality  of  our  thought  invite 
the  mental  state  and  the  nervous  reactions 
which  follow,  we  certainly  have  the  freedom 
of  the  will. 

''But,"  say  the  Fatalists,  ''you  had  to 
think  that  way  because  you  are  you,  and 
therefore  you  are  not  responsible  for  what 
follows."  Determinism  is  always  the  refuge 
of  the  weak  and  the  self-indulgent  and  always 
will  be.  When  we  grow  strong  we  renounce  it . 
This  specious  argument,  any  one  who  has 
determined  to  be  a  man  can  refute  for  him- 
self by  the  facts  of  his  own  life,  if  he  will 
look  squarely  at  them  and  attempt  no  evasion 
or  self -apology.     Let  him  answer,  when  he 


Freedom  227 

comes  to  a  turn  in  the  road,  whether  he  has 
a  choice  or  not,  and  if  not — why?  If  the 
dipsomaniac  must  take  a  drink,  is  it  a  force 
without  or  within  himself  which  so  decrees? 
Why,  it  is  the  force  of  habit  is  it  not,  which 
has  temporarily  overcome  his  will  ?  And  this 
habit,  you  must  admit,  was  of  his  own  creation. 
What  power  it  has,  he  himself  gave  it  by  per- 
sistent recognition  and  cultivation.  We  have 
always  energy  enough  to  form  habits  while 
life  lasts.  Let  him  cultivate  some  wholesome 
habits  and  as  these  grow  they  will  withdraw 
the  attention  from  the  drink  habit,  while  at  the 
same  time  he  stimulates  the  will  by  exercise, 
until  the  spell  is  broken.  By  continued  lack  of 
recognition,  thenceforth,  the  habit  will  die,  for 
habits  are  only  kept  alive  by  use.  Power  lies 
not  in  drink,  nor  in  anything  else  external  to 
us,  but  in  the  mental  attitude  we  cultivate. 
It  is  our  own  force  which  we  invoke  and  then 
turn  against  ourselves.  To  help  another,  then, 
is  primarily  to  help  him  turn  his  force  in  the 
right  direction  and  to  further  develop  it.  He 
may  need  help  at  the  start — most  of  us  have 
at  one  time  or  another;  but  once  started  in  the 
right  direction,  his  own  force  increases  with 
cultivation,  for  the  same  reason  that  his  bad 
habits  developed  with  use. 


228  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

Freedom  is  thus  largely  an  adjustment  of 
inner  states  to  outer  conditions.  It  is  not  so 
much  the  environment  which  counts  as  the 
manner  in  which  we  react  upon  that  environ- 
ment. What  is  your  abiHty  to  interpose  the 
will  between  the  afferent  impressions  and  the 
efferent  result?  Aim  to  increase  that  ability, 
for  it  makes  for  poise,  for  power,  and  for  free- 
dom. The  ape  is  an  afferent  machine,  and  the 
man  who  obeys  always  the  impression  is  a 
slave  to  the  afferent.  To  act  under  the  stim- 
ulus of  will  and  of  reason  is  the  part  of  the  free 
man.  To  act  from  afferent  impression,  from 
the  tickling  of  the  senses,  is  the  part  of  the 
slave.  Sensation  is  good  if  it  serves,  bad  if 
it  rules.  But  whether  it  rules  or  serves  de- 
pends upon  the  efffciency  of  the  will  and 
also  upon  interest.  For  if  the  attention  is 
centred  upon  the  body  it  takes  to  itself  some 
unction  and  makes  increasing  demands  upon 
the  attention.  This  is  to  speak  figuratively, 
for  it  is  in  reality  the  mind,  which  reacts  upon 
itself  by  being  centred  upon  the  body.  There 
is  no  freedom  for  us  so  long  as  we  are  dominated 
by  the  senses  or  tyrannised  over  by  the  con- 
sciousness of  the  body.  If  such  be  the  case, 
let  us  withdraw  the  attention  from  bodily 
conditions  and  distribute  it  among  spiritual 


Freedom  229 

and  intellectual  considerations.  It  were  better 
so  in  any  case,  for  freedom  is  in  that  quarter 
— ^never  in  any  other,  and  Freedom,  like  the 
muse,  must  be  invited.  She  dwells  only 
on  the  high  places,  and  in  the  lower  strata 
of  consciousness  she  can  not  live. 

As  we  cultivate  an  interest  in  spiritual 
things,  in  truth,  and  in  beauty,  the  attention 
is  provided  the  normal  field  upon  which  to 
focus  itself.  This  is  the  value  of  resources — 
that  they  take  us  out  of  ourselves.  The 
personality  is  like  a  mechanism  devised  for 
a  certain  work.  To  be  self-centred  is  to  be 
so  absorbed  in  the  machine  as  to  entirely 
lose  sight  of  the  purpose  for  which  it  is  de- 
signed, the  work  it  is  to  do.  Self-centred 
persons  are  always  self -hypnotised .  The  men- 
tal currents  stagnate  within  them.  But  to 
love  the  work,  to  be  absorbed  in  the  Purpose 
for  which  the  personal  instrument  came  into 
existence,  is  to  keep  the  current  circulating 
from  within  outward,  to  expand  in  the  direc- 
tion of  freedom.  We  may  cherish  our  whims 
and  our  self-love  if  we  will,  but  we  must  re- 
member they  are  links  in  the  chain  which  binds. 
Only  the  wise  and  spiritually  minded  are  free. 


CHAPTER  VI 

POWER 

A  S  an  efficient  regulation  of  the  mental 
^^  forces  and  the  wise  dominion  of  the  will 
over  attention,  habit,  and  imagination,  insures 
a  greater  degree  of  poise  and  some  sense  of 
freedom,  it  means  at  the  same  time  an  accession 
of  power,  not  only  through  the  regulation  of 
our  forces,  but  through  the  development  of 
latent  force. 

Much  of  our  distress  in  life  is  occasioned  by 
misdirected  energy,  we  ourselves  having  first 
developed  the  force  through  concentration  of 
the  will  upon  some  habit,  or  whim,  and  thus 
turned  it  against  ourselves.  We  liberate  power 
but  we  waste  it.  Energy  is  at  the  same  time 
withdrawn  from  legitimate  channels  and  our 
proper  activities  suffer.  The  problem  with 
man,  as  with  the  locomotive,  is  to  render 
more  energy  available  both  by  opening  chan- 
nels to  it  and  by  checking  waste.     In  this 

sense,  psychology  does  for  us  what  mechanics 

230 


Power  231 

does  for  the  engine.  Neither  create  energy — 
they  merely  aim  to  render  it  available  by 
concentrating  and  controlling  it. 

There  are  points  in  any  mechanism  where 
power  is  always  lost,  as,  for  instance,  in 
friction,  and  engineering  is  ever  concerned 
with  devising  means  for  reducing  the  loss. 
Similarly  there  are  points  in  the  mental 
machinery  where  power  escapes,  even  in  a 
fairly  well-regulated  mind.  Friction  of  any 
kind — ^mental  inharmony,  that  is — is  a  source 
of  great  waste.  Negative  emotion,  such 
as  worry  and  fear,  is  a  constant  leak. 
Lack  of  concentration — a  distracted  atten- 
tion— is  another.  Susceptibility  to  adverse 
suggestion  also;  to  say  nothing  of  lack  of 
self-control  and  a  nervous  system  that  works 
not  for,  but  against  us. 

What  are  the  conditions  then  under  which 
we  best  conserve  power?  Obviously  those  in 
which  we  have  made  our  own  faculties  friendly 
to  our  best  interest,  so  that  one  and  all  work 
for  the  general  good:  a  disciplined  and  well- 
disposed  household,  in  other  words.  This 
brings  us  back  to  the  habit  of  right-thinking 
and  the  normal  reactions  which  ensue,  for 
only  such  a  well-adjusted  mechanism  will 
develop   full  power.     The  use  of  auto-sug- 


232  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

gestion  as  an  efficient  means  of  impressing 
true  ideals  upon  the  mind  and  of  perfecting 
this  adjustment  naturally  suggests  itself  in 
this  connection.  Consciousness,  unless  it  be 
serene,  tends  to  obstruct  normal  subcon- 
scious processes  and  to  throw  mind  and  body 
out  of  adjustment.  It  is  therefore  absolutely 
necessary  that  we  eliminate  false  beliefs  and 
control  our  thinking  if  we  are  to  express  any 
freedom  in  life  or  to  avail  ourselves  of  our 
normal  power. 

If  there  is  one  fact  more  than  another  that 
should  be  emphasised  with  reference  to  the 
philosophy  of  self-help,  it  is  that  life  is  a 
whole  in  which  the  parts  are  related,  and  that 
what  affects  any  part  must  affect  the  whole. 
Ethics,  morals,  health,  are  bound  up  together. 
Nothing  is  wholly  detached  or  separate.  Our 
home  life,  our  attitude  to  our  fellows,  have 
the  most  intimate  relation  to  health  of  mind 
and  body.  What  we  do  for  another,  we 
do  for  ourselves;  what  we  take  from  another, 
we  take  from  ourselves  as  well.  Every  in- 
sincerity vitiates  the  home-life  and  if  the  home- 
life  is  not  true  and  harmonious,  character 
and  health  suffer.  If  you  are  disgruntled 
with  another,  remember  it  is  your  own  mind 
which  is  disturbed  and  mental  disturbances 


Power  233 

induce  nervous  reactions  and  waste  power. 
Hence  it  is  that  a  recognition  of  the  facts  of 
psychology  has  increased  both  our  responsi- 
bility in  life  and  our  efficiency.  It  has  shown 
us  where  the  waste  is  and  how  to  conserve  and 
direct  the  energy.  You  will  not  be  likely 
to  run  to  the  doctor  for  a  pill  for  your  irri- 
tability, or  your  worry  habit,  or  your  chronic 
selfishness.  You  may  even  conclude  your 
real  complaint  is  not  liver  trouble  but  chronic 
fear,  not  dyspepsia  but  irritability,  not  colds 
but  temper. 

While  this  has  to  do  with  the  conservation 
of  energy  mainly,  it  applies  also  to  the  develop- 
ment of  power.  In  truth  we  have  no  power  in 
ourselves:  we  can  only  regulate  and  adjust  the 
instrument  so  that  it  shall  be  efficient,  and 
power  from  above  shall  flow  through  it.  This 
is  what  science  does  with  the  forces  of  Nature : 
it  does  not  create  force  in  any  sense,  it  merely 
renders  it  available.  If  we  understood  our- 
selves as  well  as  we  understand  mechanics, 
we  could  do  the  same  with  spiritual  and  mental 
forces.  We  could  admit  more  power,  as  it 
were,  from  the  power-house,  by  enlarging  the 
mains  and  making  more  perfect  connections. 
An  efficient  will,  good  habits,  and  right-think- 
ing imply  that  the  mental  machine  is  not 


234         Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

only  not  wasting  power,  but  is  in  a  position  to 
receive  and  apply  a  greater  degree  of  power. 
We  have  to  do  with  mental  states,  and  our 
attitude  to  our  own  ability  and  to  the  source 
of  our  energy  has  everything  to  do  with  our 
realisation  of  that  power.  Are  you  praying 
unceasingly  by  concentrating  upon  your  work  ? 
— for  that  sort  of  prayer  is  answered .  Are  you 
cultivating  self -trust  ? — for  that  is  to  establish 
a  centre  of  force.  We  damn  ourselves  with 
our  doubts  and  our  faithlessness;  we  damn 
others  with  our  lack  of  faith  in  them. 

Are  you  cultivating  any  trust  in  God  who 
is  the  energy  both  of  your  doubt  and  of  your 
faith,  who  is  the  source  of  all  power?  Are 
you  trying  hopelessly  to  define  what  God  is, 
or  are  you  living  in  the  divine  Love  and 
appropriating  the  divine  Energy?  Are  you 
merely  reading  about  the  sun  or  are  you 
standing  in  the  sunshine?  If  you  seem  to 
lack  power  and  strength — ask  yourself  these 
questions. 

It  is  one  of  the  world  illusions  that  we  have 
life  apart  from  God;  as  if  a  sunbeam  should 
imagine  itself  independent  of  the  Sun,  or 
should  even  deny  that  there  was  a  Sun.  Since 
all  power  is  of  God,  the  more  we  can  realise 
our  essential  identity  with  God,  the  more  we 


Power  235 

realise  that  power  which  is  ours.  The  sense 
of  separation  weakens  always.  Realisation 
as  a  practical  ideal  has  little  part  in  the  com- 
mon notion  of  religion,  and  hence  our  religion 
itself  is  not  practical,  is  not  a  working  basis 
for  daily  life,  but  a  matter  of  sentiment, 
tradition,  and  superstition  and  one  hour 
a  week  is  enough  to  devote  to  it.  Any  real 
means  of  self-help  must  consist  in  part  in 
ridding  ourselves  of  false  concepts  and  es- 
tablishing a  normal  attitude  of  mind  and  a 
normal  relation  to  God,  to  man,  and  to  life. 
We  must  take  Psychology  out  of  the  lecture- 
room  and  bring  it  into  practice;  we  must 
take  Ethics  out  of  the  text-book  and  put  it 
into  right-thinking ;  Philosophy  out  of  theory 
and  put  it  into  wisdom  and  self-control ;  and 
we  must  take  Religion  out  of  the  prayer-book 
and  put  it  into  constant  realisation  of  God's 
presence  in  us,  for  this  is  practical  religion. 

God  being  the  source  of  our  energy,  the 
problem  of  gaining  poise,  or  freedom,  or 
power — the  problem  of  self-help  in  other 
words — resolves  itself  into  establishing  a  true 
and  vital  relation  to  God;  it  is  a  problem 
of  realisation.  Now  God  is  Love,  and  to  fill 
your  heart  with  love,  and  to  live  in  loving 
relation  to  others,  is  therefore  to  realise  God 


236  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

to  that  extent  and  to  keep  the  channel  open 
to  the  Source.  Hate,  malice,  selfishness  close 
it.  God  is  Truth,  and  to  have  true  concepts 
is  also  to  bring  God  into  consciousness,  and  to 
open  the  channel  which  is  obstructed  by  false 
beliefs  and  closed  by  error. 

Realisation  is  the  fruit  of  the  inner  life 
alone.  Without  meditation,  without  silence, 
without  quietude  it  is  never  achieved.  It  is 
in  the  inner  life  we  shall  strengthen  and  rein- 
force the  mind  for  contact  with  the  world ;  it 
is  in  the  inner  life  again  that  we  shall  seek 
refuge  from  the  vanities  and  vexations  of 
the  world  and  shall  renew  ourselves.  There- 
fore cultivate  the  silence  and  make  it  friendly 
to  you.  Relax!  Stop  thinking  and  acting 
to  no  purpose — it  is  a  waste  of  power.  Con- 
sider well  that  it  does  not  avail  how  fast  you 
run,  if  you  are  going  the  wrong  way.  Why 
such  haste?  Pause  and  get  your  bearings 
every  day.  Cease  the  futile  effort  to  generate 
power.  Go  into  the  silence  and  cultivate 
instead  an  attitude  of  mind  that  will  admit 
power  from  above. 


CHAPTER  VII 
HEALTH 

ANY  practical  study  of  psychology  outside 
of  the    school  room  must   reveal    how 
close  is   the   association   of   health   and  the 
mental   states.     Briefly    reviewing   the   sub- 
stance of  Part  II:     We  have  seen  the  relation 
of   thought   to   the   nervous    system,    which 
may  be  summed  up  in  the  fact  that  all  con- 
sciousness is  motor  and  that  every  thought 
and    feeling    produces    a    nervous    reaction. 
The  mental  state,  then, — the  stream  of  con- 
sciousness,— is    the    first    consideration   and 
whatever  influences  that  has  some  bearing 
on  the  physical   condition.     We   have   seen 
that  the  stream  of  consciousness  is  directed  or 
misdirected  by  the  attention ;  that  it  is  clarified 
by  true  concepts  and  made  turbid  by  false 
beliefs;  that   mental  states   become  chronic 
through  habit  and  that  the  attendant  nervous 
reactions    must    also    become    chronic;    that 
undesirable  pictures  formed  through  the  im- 
aging   faculty    are    intensified    by    negative 

237 


238  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

emotion,  and  that  these  as  well  as  wholesome 
pictures  become  manifest  in  the  flesh.  In 
considering  the  subconscious  we  have  ob- 
served that  normally  it  regulates  the  auto- 
matic centres;  that  it  is  interfered  with  by 
negative  currents  from  the  higher  centres; 
that  it  seems  to  store  mental  pictures,  and 
these  forgotten  pictures  retain  their  power 
to  induce  nervous  reactions.  Lastly  we  have 
found  that  auto-suggestion  is  the  efficient 
means  of  eliminating  undesirable  beliefs  and 
tendencies,  by  infusing  pure  ideals  and  true 
concepts  into  the  stream  of  consciousness, 
thus  inducing  healthful  mental  states. 

To  maintain  such  a  state  of  mind  is  to 
invite  health  in  the  body.  To  think  health 
is  to  aim,  at  least,  at  its  embodiment;  to 
think  strength  is  to  embody  more  strength. 
The  substance  of  our  psychology  will  amply 
refute  the  silly  notion  that  merely  affirming 
health  is  enough  to  insure  health.  But  while 
mere  affirmation  is  insufficient,  it  is  far  better 
than  negation.  It  has  become  evident  that  / 
health,  no  less  than  peace  of  mind,  is  influenced  ' 
by  our  relation  to  our  neighbours,  as  well  as 
by  our  inner  adjustment  to  life  and  to  the 
external  world.  In  other  words,  health  is 
bound  up  with  our  whole  moral,  ethical,  and 


Health  239 

religious  life.  For  our  moral,  ethical,  and 
religious  concepts  induce  emotions  or  form 
mental  pictures  and  these  must  necessarily 
have  nervous  reactions.  Any  defect  of  tem- 
perament or  disposition  is  inimical  to  health. 
Hence  the  fallacy — we  might  even  say  im- 
morality in  some  cases — of  making  no  effort 
to  overcome  the  moral  defect  which  is  the  true 
cause,  but  merely  drugging  the  body  to  re- 
move the  effect.  In  some  instances,  surely, 
disease  is  corrective,  and  to  absolutely  ignore 
the  lesson  it  contains  and  fly  to  drugs,  is 
merely  an  evasion  and  a  postponement. 

It  is  the  contention  of  our  philosophy  that 
health  is  fundamentally  a  mental  state,  the 
result  of  a  harmonious  adjustment.  Nor  is  this 
view  controverted  by  the  health  of  the  robust 
but  ignorant  labourer.  With  him  there  is 
much  less  interference  with  the  normal  sub- 
conscious processes  by  the  misrule  of  con- 
sciousness, than  is  usually  the  case  with  the 
cultivated  mind  and  sensitive  and  more  deli- 
cate organisation.  Neither  are  his  emotions  so 
complex  or  so  intense,  nor  his  mental  pictures 
so  vivid.  The  sum  of  his  conscious  activity 
is  slight,  his  life  simple,  and  his  compensa- 
tion is  a  physical  condition  more  nearly 
approaching  that  of  the  animal. 


240  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

It  is  not  contended  that  we  can  be  inde- 
pendent of  material  things,  but  that  health 
is  a  mental  adjustment  to  these  as  well. 
What  we  must  insist  upon,  as  the  only 
philosophic  view,  is  that  the  material  is  al- 
ways relative  to  our  state  of  mind.  We  can 
not  live  without  food,  air,  heat,  but  the  eflect 
of  these  things  upon  any  body  depends, 
within  certain  limits,  upon  the  mind  which 
informs  that  body.  The  same  kind  of  food 
eaten  during  different  emotive  states  will 
have  different  results.  A  given  temperature 
is  relative  to  our  condition  and  the  excessive 
heat  or  cold  of  one  day  is  not  excessive  to  us 
at  another  time  under  other  conditions,  or 
to  another  race  of  people.  Sensations  and 
impressions,  be  it  remembered,  come  to  us 
through  consciousness  and  must  therefore 
vary  with  the  fluctuations  of  consciousness. 
Let  it  be  remembered  also  that  our  beliefs 
concerning  a  thing  may  react  upon  us  quite 
independently  of  the  thing  itself. 

Mental  conditions  which  disturb  our  poise 
or  waste  our  power  are  necessarily  inimical  to 
health.  Therefore  right-thinking  is  the  true 
basis  of  health,  for  under  that  condition 
only  can  the  life-force  utilise  matter  to  the  best 
advantage.     Food  does  not  give  life,  but  the 


Health  241 

life-force  must  have  food  as  building  material 
for  the  body,  as  it  must  have  air  and  water 
and  a  temperature  within  the  limits  possible 
to  the  maintenance  of  human  life.  A  mind 
centred  upon  the  body,  too,  is  inimical  to 
health.  It  may  be  accepted  as  a  good  rule  that ' 
the  less  thought  taken  of  the  body  the  better. 
Lift  the  thought  off  the  body  and  establish 
the  habit  of  unconsciousness  of  this  outer 
garment.  Make  it  your  concern  to  take  care 
of  the  mind  and  let  the  subconscious  take 
care  of  the  body. 

This  emphasis  of  the  importance  of  mental 
states  does  not  imply  that  normal  require- 
ments are  to  be  dispensed  with.  Sleep  and  f 
exercise  have  their  relation  to  health  be- 
cause, like  food,  they  are  essential.  We  are 
not  to  assume  that  because  of  right-thinking 
we  can  do  without  those  things  normal  to 
physical  expression.  We  are  simply  to  re- 
member that  they  have  no  relation  to  us 
independent  of  the  state  of  the  mind.  Sleep  i\ 
is  even  more  a  mental  than  a  physical  rest.  ^^ 
Exercise  is  a  mental  relaxation.  From  a 
wholly  material  point  of  view  we  are  sup- 
posed to  require  such  and  such  food  in  order 
to  be  well,  but  the  awakening  mind  discovers 
this  is  mere  opinion,  and  that  everything, 
16 


242  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

except  absolute  truth  itself,  is  relative  to  our 
states  of  consciousness.  In  one  part  of  the 
world  or  another  you  may  see  all  the  laws 
of  hygiene  successfully  refuted  by  people 
who  have  never  heard  of  them.  These  are 
for  the  most  part  man-made  laws,  that  is, 
mere  opinions  and  not  laws  at  all.  But  the 
relation  of  mental  states  and  mental  pictures 
to  nervous  reactions  and  to  health  is  not  a 
man-made  law  but  the  appointed  condition 
under  which  we  live. 

Let  the  aim  be — "  a  sound  mind  in  a  sound 
body."  This  is  health.  It  means  not  only  a 
mind  in  harmony  within  itself,  but  a  com.plete 
adjustment  of  the  inner  to  the  outer,  and  the 
dominion  of  the  higher  over  the  lower.  Sen- 
sation, as  we  have  seen,  is  mental.  To  be 
dominated  by  sensation  then  really  means  to 
be  under  the  rule  of  a  certain  order  of  think- 
ing. To  be  carnally  minded  means  to  be  ruled 
not  so  much  by  the  body  as  by  perverted 
thought  about  the  body.  Causes  are  mental. 
The  body  is  an  effect — a  mere  appearance — 
changing  from  hour  to  hour  and  dissolved 
into  its  elements  the  moment  the  life-force 
ceases  its  connection  with  it. 

When  we  analyse  health  it  seems  rather 
complex:  when  we  realise  health  it  is  simple 


Health  243 

enough.  It  is  they  who  do  not  sleep  who 
know  all  the  methods  for  producing  sleep. 
The  fact  has  become  evident,  however,  in  our 
analysis  that  health  is  not  merely  a  matter 
of  having  good  food,  and  fresh  air,  desirable 
as  these  may  be,  but  has  its  roots  deep  in  the 
soil  of  our  mental  and  moral  life.  Health 
is  a  mental  state  as  well  as  a  bodily  con- 
dition. We  say  we  ''feel  well,"  but  the 
body  is  incapable  of  feeling  and  it  is  the  mind 
alone  which  feels.  We  must  eat,  but  we 
must  observe  the  state  of  mind  in  which  we 
eat.  We  must  bathe,  but  we  must  also  be 
morally  pure  and  mentally  clean.  We  must 
exercise,  but  still  more  must  we  recreate  and  | 
renew  the  mind  from  time  to  time — rid  it  of  ^ 
false  and  debilitating  beliefs  and  strengthen 
it  with  truth. 

Were  we  to  begin  life  to-day  on  this  basis, 
the  problem  of  health  and  of  life  itself  would 
be  far  simpler.  But  the  beliefs  and  the  men- 
tal pictures  of  long  ago — incident  perhaps  to 
a  personality  we  now  repudiate — may  still 
be  inducing  nervous  reactions  that  disturb 
organic  function.  In  addition  to  maintaining 
the  integrity  of  the  mind  to-day,  we  must 
pour  in  pure  and  wholesome  thought  until 
the  submerged  reservoir  is  itself  wholly  pure. 


244  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

We  must  erase  the  old  pictures  and  replace 
them  with  healthful  ones.  We  must  obliter- 
ate neural  paths  by  withdrawing  the  attention 
from  the  mental  habits  that  formed  them. 

In  a  sense,  however,  we  do  begin  life  every 
day.  We  come  into  possession,  as  it  were, 
of  an  old  estate  which  has  in  all  probability 
been  mismanaged.  From  this  hour  we  can 
manage  it  wisely.  This  day  we  can  insti- 
tute reforms  which  shall  overcome  the  results 
of  past  mismanagement.  Nature  works  for 
health.  Thus  also  do  love  and  wisdom;  only 
false  beliefs,  negative  emotions,  and  defects  of 
character  and  disposition  interfere  and  pro- 
duce discord.  Health  is  harmony,  and  the 
means  of  regaining  a  lost  harmony  and  of 

• .  maintaining  it  is  the  persistent  auto-sugges- 
tion of  love  and  truth.  This  does  not  mean 
the  mere  repetition  of  a  truth :  it  means  dwell- 
ing upon  it  until  it  is  brought  into  realisation, 
and  a  new  state  of  mind  and  a  new  feeling 
ensue.  To  feel  more  cheerful,  kinder,  and 
more  considerate,  stronger,  freer,  and  more 

,    positive,  is  the  result  of  an  increased  per- 
,^'^  ception  and  realisation  of  truth:  and  to  feel 
^^         thus   is   also   to   have   an   increased   bodily 
feeling  of  health. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
DISEASE 

A  S  we  have  revised  somewhat  our  idea 
^~^  of  health,  we  must  also  revise  our  idea 
of  disease.  Our  subject  does  not  call  for  a 
discussion  of  disease  from  a  pathologic  point 
of  view,  but  there  is  something  to  be  said 
from  a  philosophical  and  psychological  stand- 
point. Medicine  has  in  the  past  disassociated 
disease  from  mental  states  and  regarded  it  as 
if  it  were  a  thing-in-itself — an  active  principle 
to  be  combated,  or  a  condition  of  matter  to 
be  treated  by  material  means  alone.  This  is 
less  so  to-day,  however,  than  it  was  even  ten 
years  ago,  and  physicians  recognise  much 
more  than  ever  before,  not  only  that  the  mind 
has  something  to  do  with  producing  disease, 
but  that,  through  suggestion,  it  may  have 
something  to  do  with  curing  it. 

Opposed  to  the  material  fallacy  to  which 
medicine  has  so  long  committed  itself,  is 
the  truth  that  matter  does  not  act  of  itself, 

245 


246  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

but  is  acted  upon,  that  sensation  is  necessarily 
mental,  and  that  disease,  in  place  of  being  a 
principle,  self-existent  and  co-existent  with 
/  the  life-force  itself,  is  the  variable  expression 
j  of  inner  inharmony  and  maladjustment,  the 
outer  and  visible  effect  of  moral  and  mental 
causes.  It  is  true  that  specific  forms  of 
bacteria  are  associated  with  different  diseases ; 
so  are  some  fungi  peculiar  to  certain  trees. 
A  microbe  is  no  more  a  disease  than  a  mush- 
room is  a  disease.  It  is  itself  a  healthy 
organism.  Decay  is  the  soil,  however,  in 
which  it  grows.  As  mushrooms  do  not  grow 
on  healthy  trees,  neither  do  certain  bacteria 
thrive  in  a  healthy  body.  The  atmosphere 
of  a  large  city  contains  many  kinds  of  bacteria. 
Only  when  they  fall  on  the  right  soil  do  they 
flourish,  as  mushrooms  only  germinate  when 
they  find  the  right  conditions. 

The  physician  takes  no  account  of  the 
disease-germs  in  the  mental  atmosphere  which 
he  himself  assiduously  fosters,  bringing  his 
mental  disease-culture  from  the  hospital  and 
taking  it  from  house  to  house  to  infect  the 
minds  of  his  patients.  The  most  prevalent 
and  the  most  dangerous  of  all  forms  of  in- 
fection is  mental.  It  is  far  easier  to  get  bac- 
teria   out    of    the   body    than    to    eradicate 


Disease  247 

disease-germs  from  the  mind,  once  they  got 
in.  Thinking  and  talking  about  disease  pre- 
pare the  mental  soil  for  its  reception.  Fear 
and  expectancy  promote  its  growth.  Only 
vigorous  and  fearless  minds,  at  harmony 
within  themselves,  are  immune.  Are  you  self- 
ish, are  you  fearful,  are  you  irritable?  Re- 
member these  things  weaken  the  mental 
fibre, — as  decay  weakens  the  tree, — and  in- 
vite mental  germs  to  lodge  and  develop.  As 
the  fungus  thrives  out  of  the  sun,  so  this 
mental  fungus  is  sustained  in  darkness  and 
fearfulness  of  mind  where  healthy  and  vigor- 
ous thoughts  find  no  nourishment. 

That  disease  has  no  reahty,  is  true  in  a 
strictly  metaphysical  sense:  but  in  this  sense 
the  personality  itself  is  unreal — the  world  is 
unreal — for  neither  endure,  neither  are  perma- 
nent entities.  Health  and  disease  are  merely 
manifestations  of  harmony  or  discord  in  thel^ 
ever-changing  body.  Let  us  remember,  how- 
ever, that  harmony,  like  light,  is  real  and 
enduring,  while  discord  and  evil,  like  dark- 
ness, spring  from  no  principles  and  have  no 
abiding  reality.  We  think  and  talk  so  much 
more  of  disease  than  of  health,  dwell  upon 
it,  emphasise  it,  that  we  have  now  infected 
the  world-thought  with  the  idea  of  disease  and 


248  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

have  made  it  seem  more  real  than  health.  We 
have  lost  sight  of  the  fact  that  health  is  nor- 
mal and  disease  is  largely  an  abnormality  of 
consciousness.  '" 

It  is  entirely  overlooked  by  most  people 
that  minor  complaints  would  take  care  of 
themselves  if  we  merely  let  them  alone  and  did 
absolutely  nothing  but  divert  the  attention, 
f  For  it  is  Nature  that  heals,  and  what  people 
really  run  to  the  doctor  for  is  to  satisfy  their 
minds  that  something  is  being  done.  Nature 
as  a  recuperative  force  is  completely  ignored. 
The  fact  is  overlooked  again  that  some  diseases 
are  self -limited  and,  providing  they  do  not 
prove  fatal,  run  their  course  in  a  given  time 
and  stop,  whether  any  attempt  is  made  to 
cure  them  or  not.  Medicine  has  now  come 
to  recognise  a  class  of  nervous  diseases  and 
imaginary  diseases  which  may  be  benefited 
by  mental  treatment.  But  all  diseases  are 
more  or  less  nervous,  inasmuch  as  the  body 
is  acted  upon  by  the  mind  through  the  nervous 
system.  Furthermore  the  imaging  faculty  has 
something  to  do  with  all  diseases :  in  some  cases 
by  forming  a  picture  of  the  disease;  in  others, 
as  we  have  seen,  by  forming  negative  pictures 
of  some  sort,  under  stress  of  fright  or  anger, 
which  are  stored  away  in  the  subconscious  and 


Disease  249 

of  which  the  patient  may  he  wholly  unaware, 
but  which  continue  to  induce  nervous  re- 
actions that  prevent  the  normal  functions  of 

1  some  organ.  *^    ^  Cu^-^J,     C  C^^^^^^C^r- 

There  are,  of  course,  people  who  imagine 
they  have  complaints  and  who  feel  they  are 
cured  when  the  mind  is  disabused  of  the  idea  by 
which  they  were  practically  hypnotised.  Their 
disease  is  primarily  a  diseased  imagination — 
and  that  is  a  serious  complaint.  A  diseased' 
imagination  is  just  as  real  as  a  diseased 
m     ^  liver.     Neither  have  reality  in  an  absolute 

\\sense;  both  are  real  in  a  relative  sense.  An- 
other class  do  not  really  want  to  be  cured 
of  their  complaints.  Their  disease  is  self-love 
and  self-pity.  They  are  found  only  among 
those  who  can  afford  to  constantly  employ  a 
doctor  to  lean  upon.  They  are  disinclined 
to  make  any  effort  to  help  themselves  and 
they  would  rather  be  ill  than  relinquish  their 
self-pity,  which  is  their  greatest  comfort. 
The  only  cure  for  these  people  is  an  awaken- 
ing to  a  new  sense  of  life  and  their  pwn 
responsibility  in  it. 

While  it  is  now  admitted  that  functional  and 
nervous  disease  may  be  reached  by  suggestion, 
the  possibility  of  so  reaching  organic  disease 
is  still  denied  by  physicians.     It  is  true  that 


250  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

in  organic  disease  there  is  a  lesion,  a  change' 
or  waste  of  tissue.  But  if  the  mind  can  waste 
tissue  why  can  it  not  rebuild  tissue?  As 
bricks  do  not  themselves  build  a  wall,  but 
the  mason  builds  it,  using  bricks  for  material, 
so  the  mind  builds  the  body,  using  food  for 
material.  In  the  hypnotic  state,  suggestion 
has  caused  a  blister  to  appear  and  to  dis- 
appear. Ah,  little  sirs,  ''There  are  more 
things  in  heaven  and  earth  than  are  dreamed 
of  in  your  philosophy."  The  life-force  builds 
the  body.  If  we  can  remove  that  which 
obstructs  its  activity  in  some  direction,  why 
should  it  not  rebuild  ?  A  formal  protest  should 
be  lodged  against  the  term  incurabky  on  the 
ground  that  it  is  unscientific.  We  may  not 
yet  have  cured  a  certain  malady,  but  to  say 
that  it  is  incurable  is  as  absurd  as  it  would 
have  been  a  few  years  since  to  have  aflfirmed 
that,  because  we  never  had  constructed  a 
flying  machine,  therefore  flying  machines  were 
impossible ;  or  because  we  never  had  invented 
a  telephone,  therefore  telephones  never  would 
be  invented.  The  science  of  Suggestion — the 
science  of  Psychology  itself — is  in  its  infancy. 
We  have  every  reason  to  expect  great  de- 
velopments in  this  direction. 

There  is  properly  no  science  of  Medicine, 


Disease  251 

for  the  practice  of  medicine,  as  far  as  it 
concerns  drugs,  is  no  more  than  guessing. 
Tliere  are  many  excellent  men  in  the  i^ro- 
fession  earnestly  devoted  to  helping  the  sick, 
but  at  best  they  are  only  guessers,  and  the 
theories  and  remedies  of  To-day  will  be  re- 
;  placed  by  those  of  To-morrow.  It  is  well 
^  known  that  from  the  effect  of  a  given  drug 
^  upon  A  you  can  not  predict  its  effect  upon 
B.  Neither  do  two  schools  of  Medicine,  nor 
necessarily  two  exponents  of  the  same  school, 
agree  upon  its  use  with  reference  to  either 
A  or  B.  Hence  the  guessing.  Mark  the 
y  fact  that  the  Homeopaths  refute  the  system 
of  the  Allopaths  by  using  a  remedy  which 
is  practically  no  remedy  at  all,  so  attenuated 
is  the  drug.  Observe  again  that  the  majority 
of  followers  of  both  Mental  and  Christian 
Science  are  people  whom  medicine  has  failed 
to  benefit.  This  is  not  the  place  to  denounce 
or  uphold  any  system,  as  such,  and  the  author 
is  merely  an  investigator  in  search  of  the 
facts  and  resolved  to  uphold  only  the  facts. 
But  the  treatment  of  disease  by  suggestion 
in  accordance  with  true  ideals  is  far  more 
scientific  than  the  so-called  science  of  Medi- 
cine, because  it  deals  with  causes  and  recog- 
nises that  to  remove  an  effect  you  must  first 


-it 


252  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

remove  the  cause.  Medicine  deals  with  effects 
only  and  mistakes  effects  for  cause.  In  this 
regard  it  is  an  antiquated,  unscientific  system 
and  as  such  is  destined  to  be  replaced  by  the 
scientific  use  of  suggestion  as  fast  as  the 
people  see  through  the  fallacy  and  outgrow 
it.  The  discontinuance  of  drugs — ^which  is 
now  well  under  way — does  not  mean  the  dis- 
continuance of  care,  of  nursing,  and  of  some 
aspects  of  hygiene.  More  attention  will  be 
paid  to  these  as  less  attention  is  paid  to  drugs. 
Still  more  attention  will  be  devoted  to  men- 
tal conditions,  mental  disinfecting,  and  mental 
upbuilding.  The  successful  physicians  of  the 
future  will  be  practical  psychologists. 

To  endeavour  to  disassociate  disease  from 
its  mental  and  moral  root  and  deal  with 
the  effect  alone  is  obviously  unscientific. 
It  may  be  very  successful  in  describing  and 
diagnosing  the  physical  effects,  but  it  has 
never  been  and  never  will  be  successful  in 
curing  the  disease,  for  it  leaves  the  root 
untouched.  Mental  treatment  is  more  exact 
and  more  scientific  because  it  aims  to  remove 
the  cause.  Pain  in  some  instances  is  beneficent 
and  corrective.  It  is  a  warning  that  certain 
moral  defects,  false  beliefs,  or  negative  ten- 
dencies, through  their  nervous  reactions,  are 


Disease  253 

seriously  interfering  with  the  bodily  as  well  as 
with  the  moral  welfare.  If  we  are  wise  enough 
to  heed  the  lesson  and  overcome  the  error  in 

V.  mind,  or  the  defect  of  disposition,  or  to  erase 
the  negative  picture,  the  trouble  will  cease 
and  pain  will  have  served  its  mission.  If,  in- 
stead, we  make  no  change  in  ourselves  but 
simply  put  a  drug  in  the  stomach,  we  have 
^-  only  evaded  the  lesson  and  must  continue 

V  paying  the  penalty,  whenever  occasion  makes 
it  necessary,  until  the  lesson  is  learned. 

In  refuting  the  belief  that  disease  is  a  roar- 
ing lion  seeking  whom  it  may  devour,  and 
affirming  instead  that  it  is  an  effect  always 
of  some  hidden  cause,  we  have  arrived  at  that 
conclusion  for  which  our  psychology  was  the 
premise.  The  moral  defects,  the  false  beliefs, 
the  tyrannous  negative  emotions  are  the  real 
diseases,  as  wisdom  and  virtue  are  the  real 
health.  The  ease  or  pain  of  the  body  is  but 
a  surface  indication.  Nor  do  the  ailments  of 
infants  in  the  least  affect  our  position;  for 
children  are  mere  weather  vanes  which  in- 
dicate the  prevailing  emotive  states  of  their 
parents,  and  are  quickly  upset  physically, 
Both  "by  the  inharmony  and  fears  of  elder 
minds  and  by  the  mental  atmosphere  of  the 
household. 


CHAPTER  IX 
MENTAL  HEALING 

IF  we  admit  the  facts  of  psychology,  we 
must  also  admit  the  power  of  suggestion 
in  the  healing  of  disease,  and  that  mental 
healing  has  a  logical  and  scientific  basis;  for 
the  chief  aim  of  mental  healing  is  the  eradi- 
cation of  moral  defects.  Weakness  of  char- 
acter, false  beliefs,  delusion,  and  discord  are 
the  seeds  of  disease.  The  physician  com- 
plains that  the  metaphysician  does  not  diag- 
nose and  is  incapable  of  diagnosing  the 
disease.  The  mental  therapeutist  does  diag- 
nose the  mental  and  moral  causes  of  disease, 
while  from  his  standpoint  the  physician 
diagnoses  only  the  symptoms  of  disease.  One 
deals  with  causes,  the  other  with  effects 
merely.  Now  the  metaphysician  may  be 
quite  as  mistaken  at  times  in  his  diagnosis  of 
causes  as  the  physician  in  his  diagnosis  of 
symptoms.     Human  reason  is  never  infallible, 

and  in  judging  any  system,  allowance  should 

254 


I 


Mental  Healing  255 

be  made  for  the  limitations  of  its  exponents. 
But  a  principle  underlies  the  theory  of  men- 
tal healing,  whereas  there  is  no  principle  at 
all  behind  the  practice  of  giving  drugs. 

The  theory  of  mental  therapeutics  rests 
upon  the  great  truth,  which  Medicine  ignores, 
that  Man  is  a  w^hole  in  which  the  parts  are 
related  and  interdependent.  As  long  as  there 
is  life,  the  body  is  never  detached  from  the 
mind,  but  all  consciousness  is  motor,  inducing 
nervous  reactions  which  become  manifest  in 
the  body.  The  superficial  man — ^the  self-as-^ 
known — is  here  undergoing,  for  some  divine 
and  inscrutable  purpose,  a  moral  and  mental 
evolution.  He  was  put  into  the  world,  not 
mainly  to  eat  and  drink,  but  to  practise  and 
ultimately  to  attain  to  wisdom  and  virtue;  and 
in  the  course  of  this  evolution  his  ignorance 
and  his  perversity  cause  him  suffering  of  mind 
and  body.  It  rests,  furthermore,  upon  the 
still  deeper  truth  that  the  self-as-knower— the 
Soul — ^is  the  real  man,  real  because  one  with 
the  eternal  Knower  of  the  universe,  unchang- 
ing and  tmchangeable  while  all  else  passes. 
Harmony  is  the  goal  of  life;  heaven  is  but 
harmony,  and  harmony  is  a  state  of  mind 
in  which  consciousness  is  in  perfect  accord 
with   the   Soul— that   is,    with   God    who   is. 


256  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

absolute  Love  and  Truth.  To  replace  the 
disturbed  consciousness  with  a  mind  serene, 
uplifted,  and  in  harmony  with  absolute 
truth,  by  the  impression  of  ideals  through 
suggestion,  audible  and  telepathic,  is  the  aim 
of  the  metaphysician. 

Suffering,  both  mental  and  physical,  has, 
in  some  cases  at  least,  a  distinctly  moral 
significance.  It  points  to  lack  of  adjustment, 
to  error  and  defect  to  be  overcome,  to  an 
inharmony  inimical  to  the  general  welfare. 
[To  truly  heal,  therefore,  is  not  merely  to 
patch  up  the  body;  it  is  to  effect  a  moral  or 
mental  change,  to  eliminate  factors  of  discord 
and  weakness  and  to  establish  harmony. 
Mental  healing  is  in  fact  teaching  health  on 
the  basis  that  health  is  harmony — that  is,  a 
sum  of  moral,  mental,  and  spiritual  factors, 
outwardly  expressed  in  the  body.  It  is  to  in- 
struct in  the  science  of  harmony.  Suggestion 
is  merely  a  means  to  that  end. 

We  are  not  bodies:  we  merely  have  bodies, 
as  we  have  clothes.  Hence  to  live  to  the  body 
as  we  commonly  do,  to  centre  the  attention 
upon  the  body  and  its  wants  to  the  exclusion 
of  the  higher  planes  of  consciousness,  is  a 
perversion  for  which  the  penalty  is  pain. 
Regeneration  is  a  lifting  of  thought  from  the 


-0 


Mental  Healing  257 

material,  where  it  is  wrongly  centred,  to  the 
spiritual,  where  it  should  normally  dwell. 
The  flesh  is  good  in  its  place,  but  it  profits 
nothing.  It  is  the  spirit  alone  which  avails. 
This  is  the  true  work  of  the  metaphysician, 
if  he  be  w^orthy  of  his  difficult  office.  Mere 
hypnotic  suggestion  is  not  enough  in  itself — 
is  at  best  only  a  means  to  an  end.  That  end 
is  enlightenment  and  moral  regeneration. 

Regeneration  means  a  coming  out  of  bond- 
age to  false  beliefs  and  the  tyranny  of  sensa- 
tion. It  means  being  bom  again,  this  time 
not  of  the  flesh  but  of  the  Spirit :  that  is,  into 
a  spiritual  point  of  view  with  spiritual  aims — 
the  love  of  righteousness  and  peace  rather 
than  of  meat  and  drink.  This  is  the  normal 
point  of  view.  There  is  first  the  natural  man 
and  then  the  spiritual  man.  The  natural  man 
is  but  the  soil  in  which  the  germ  of  spiritual 
consciousness  shall  unfold  and  come  to  frui- 
tion. It  is  choked  by  selfishness  and  ignor- 
ance; it  is  fostered  by  love  and  truth.  To 
admit  love  and  truth  to  the  mind  then,  by  any 
means,  is  like  admitting  sunlight  to  the  soil  by 
cutting  away  the  weeds  and  brush. 

Regeneration   means   a   change   of   heart;  I 
from  vanity  and  vexation  of  spirit  to  seren- 
ity and  peace,  from  selfishness  and  pride  to 
17 


2S8  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

love  and  considerateness,   from   dependence 
upon  externals  to   a  dependence  upon  the 
inner  life.     It  is  to  renounce  Mammon  and 
worship  God  in  spirit  and  in  truth.     This  is 
the  way   and   the  life.     Suffering   and   dis- 
appointment,   and   often   pain   and   disease,  .:  >  •■ 
turn  us  back  into  the  true  way  from  which  we 
have  strayed,  or  which  we  may  never  as  yet 
have  discovered  in  our  search  for  happiness. 
Philosophy  and  experience  both  teach  us  the       » 
way  at  last,  but  experience  is  a  slow  teacher.  '  '^^ 
It  is  a  remarkable  fact,  however,  that  disease    '\t\ 
more  than  any  other  one  cause  has  been  in-  . 
strumental  in  turning  men  from  an  animal  [i^ 
existence  and  awakening  the  spiritual  con- 
sciousness and  a  desire  for  the  higher  life. 

In  the  process  of  regeneration,  some  aid 
may  be  required  from  another.  The  aim  of  \ 
the  metaphysician  is  to  arouse  in  you  the 
latent  capacity  for  helping  yourself,  by  first, 
eliminating  the  obstacles  which  prevent.  He 
can  put  you  on  your  feet  and  start  you  on  the 
road.  Then  you  must  go  on — no  one  can 
walk  for  you.  To  place  one  in  a  position 
to  help  himself  is  the  greatest  service  one 
can  render  to  another.  To  open  your  eyes 
to  the  truth,  to  reveal  to  you  your  own  power 
and  possibilities,  and  to  indicate  the  true  way 


Mental  Ilcalin^^  259 


i5 


of  life,  is  the  office  of  the  mental  healer,  quite 
as  much  as  to  cure  your  complaints.  Teach- 
ing and  healing  are  fundamentally  related  and 
it  is  only  by  reason  of  ignorance  and  incom- 
petence that  man  has  divorced  them. 

The  metaphysician,  through  understanding 
and  thought-control,  develops  unusual  power 
of   concentration   by   which   his   thought    is 
brought  to  a  focus  in  the  mind  of  his  patient, 
as  a  burning  glass  concentrates  rays  of  sun- 
light.   Thus  he  virtually  focusses  the  light  of 
truth  upon  the  dark  recesses  of  the  mind,  and 
this  should  set  in  motion  the  forces  of  that 
mind  towards  its  own  liberation  and  regenera- 
tion.   This  we  should  learn  to  do  for  ourselves 
as  far  as  possible,  and  should  only  appeal  to 
another  when  it  seems  imperative  through  lack 
of  success  in  helping  ourselves.     Others  may 
be  able  to  see  our  troubles  more  clearly  than 
we,  having  perspective  and  also  experience  in 
the  diagnosis  of  mental  conditions;  and  often-^ 
times  a  little   help    from   another  makes  it\ 
possible  for  us  to  continue  successfully  the| 
work  for  ourselves,  by  giving  us  courage  andi 
renewing  our  faith. 

To  help  one  to  help  himself,  to  develop  his  • 

\  own  power,  come  into  his  own  estate,  free  ; 

himself  from  abnormalities  and  beliefs,  and; 


26o  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

express  perfect  sanity  and  health  in  his  life 
is  the  end  in  view.  This  is  a  doctrine  of  self- 
reliance  as  opposed  both  to  the  theological 
dogma  of  relying  upon  another  to  save  us 
from  the  effects  of  sin,  and  the  medical  dogma 
of  relying  upon  a  prescription  to  free  us  from 
the  effects  of  self-indulgence,  wrong-thinking, 
or  defects  of  character.  It  is  Spartan  and 
heroic — a  creed  for  men  and  not  for  weaklings 
and  milksops.  It  means — Play  up!  Play 
up!  Play  the  game!  Be  a  man!  Take  your,' 
punishment.  Learn  your  lesson.  Work  out 
your  own  salvation;  for  thus  and  thus  only 
come  strength  and  understanding — yes,  and 
compassion.  While  we  live,  let  us  live  to 
some  purpose ;  and  when  we  die  let  us  not  die 
complaining.  Let  us  aim  to  leave  the  world 
with  the  feeling  that  it  is  the  better  for  our 
having  lived  in  it  and  that  we  ourselves  have 
made  some  preparation  for  a  higher  life. 

Once  our  eyes  have  been  opened  to  the 
subtle  relation  between  character,  disposition, 
prevailing  mental  states,  and  physical  con- 
dition and  environment,  we  can  no  longer 
consistently  run  to  a  doctor  and  say,  *Xure 
my  cold,  my  dyspepsia,  my  liver!"  We  may 
however  in  time  of  need  go  to  the  metaphysi- 
cian and  say:  **Help  me  to  free  myself  from 


Mental  Healing  261 

my  fears.  Help  me  to  overcome  my  irri- 
tability and  my  selfishness.  Help  me  to  a 
better  understanding  of  truth  and  a  fuller 
expression  of  love  in  my  life."  Better  still 
we  may  be  our  own  physician,  administering  \ 
truth  to  an  erring  consciousness,  implanting 
true  ideals,  and  admitting  light  to  dark 
comers  of  the  mind  through  the  practical  • 
means  of  auto-suggestion.  We  may  con- 
stantly refute  error  with  truth,  fear  and  worry 
with  love  and  trust,  disease-germs  in  the 
mind  with  health-thoughts.  To  work  out 
salvation  is  to  establish  the  habit  of  right- 
thinking,  to  the  end  that  we  may  ultimately 
show  forth  a  sound  mind  in  a  sound  body. 

If  the  road  is  long,  be  not  discouraged.     No 
brave  life  is  ever  lived  in  vain.     Your  destin)* 
is  in  your  own  hands.     To  conquer  one's  self . 
is  the  greatest  of  all  victories.     To  love  one  ' 
another  is   the   true   law.     Love   is   the   re-  ^« 
deemer.     In  the  truth  you  shall  be  free.    Open  '^L 
your  heart  then  to  love;  open  your  mind  to 
the  truth! 


CHAPTER  X 
CONCLUSION 

IT  has  been  assumed  by  some  people  in  their 
enthusiasm  for  new  ideas — to  the  detri- 
ment certainly  of  the  spread  of  true  knowledge 
— that  common-sense  was  somehow  to  be 
dispensed  with.  Now  we  shall  not  find  any 
system  that  will  take  the  place  of  common- 
sense,  but  never  before  has  there  been  such 
good  and  sufficient  ground  for  revising  our 
notion  of  what  is  common-sense.  To  conserv- 
ative and  timid  people,  it  means  merely 
conformity  to  tradition.  To  do  as  our  grand- 
mothers did,  they  assume  to  be  common- 
sense,  whereas  it  may  be  only  nonsense. 
There  is  no  better  plea  for  this  revision  than 
our  psychology  itself,  which  puts  our  whole 
relation  to  life  in  a  new  light.  But  it  should 
lead  us,  not  to  ignore,  but  rather  to  substitute 
a  true,  for  a  spurious  common-sense. 

If  the   Idealism  of  the  present   day  has 

shown  a  tendency  to  become  extreme,  it  must 

262 


Conclusion  263 

not  be  overlooked  that  it  is  a  reaction  from 
the  most  pronounced  materialism  the  world 
has  ever  known,  and  all  reactions  from  extreme 
positions  are  liable  themselves  to  be  extreme. 
None  the  less,  the  present  movement  repre- 
sents one  of  the  most  determined  efforts  in 
history  to  think  clearly,  and  a  noteworthy 
attempt  of  a  people  to  free  themselves 
from  the  bondage  to  hopeless  materialism 
to  which  both  medicine  and  theology  were 
dooming  the  race.  To  realise  the  force  of 
this  movement,  we  have  only  to  consider  that 
the  tenets  of  a  hide-bound  theology  and  of 
equally  hide-bound  schools  of  medicine  have 
been  modified,  if  ever  so  slightly,  throughout 
the  whole  of  this  country  by  its  powerful 
influence.  While  these  institutions  will  not 
themselves  admit  this,  no  one  who  has  closely 
observed  the  medical  and  theological  straws 
for  the  past  twenty  years  can  have  any  doubt 
as  to  which  way  the  wind  is  blowing.  It  is  one 
of  the  great  reactionary  movements  of  history 
and,  whereas  we  of  the  present  cannot  esti- 
mate its  proportions  for  lack  of  perspective, 
future  historians  will  so  regard  it. 

One  evidence  of  common-sense,  surely,  is 
to  keep  abreast  of  the  times  and  to  go  with 
the  current  when,  upon  investigation,  that 


264  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

current  is  seen  to  flow  in  the  direction  of  the 
true  interests  of  mankind  and  to  be  incident 
to  the  spiritual  evolution  of  the  race.  It  is 
another  evidence  of  common-sense  to  move 
deliberately  and,  on  general  philosophic 
grounds,  to  avoid  extremes.  Theory  and 
practice  must  go  together  in  philosophy  as 
elsewhere.  We  sometimes  perceive  the  truth 
in  sudden  gleams  and  flashes,  but  by  no 
such  sudden  movement  is  it  incorporated 
in  our  whole  mental  life,  but  rather  by  a 
deliberate  and  evolutionary  process.  The 
propagation  of  truth  is  always  checked  by 
those  emotional  enthusiasts  who,  having  be- 
come enamoured  of  a  new  theory,  hasten  to 
announce  it  before  they  are  in  the  least  able 
to  put  it  into  practice.  Build  your  founda- 
tion well  and  your  superstructure  will  stand ; 
otherwise,  it  will  surely  fall,  to  the  derision  of 
the  scoffers.  A  tree  shall  be  judged  by  its 
fruits,  not  by  what  you  have  to  say  about  it. 
Therefore  be  moderate  in  theory  and  assiduous 
in  practice.  Take  the  middle  path.  It  is  the 
best  road  for  a  long  journey.  We  were  not 
destined  here  to  live  as  though  we  had  no 
bodies  but  rather,  if  may  be,  to  announce  in 
the  flesh  the  triumph  of  the  Spirit. 

A    transition  period  in  the   evolution   of 


Conclusion  265 

religious  and  philosophic  thought,  this  is 
necessarily  an  age  of  fads.  True  growth  is 
always  from  within,  but  fads  are  merely  an 
accretion  from  without.  In  spite  of  the 
New  Thought,  or  the  Vedanta  Philosophy, 
or  Christian  Science,  our  happiness  is  still  a 
matter  of  wisdom  and  virtue  and  not  of  the 
beliefs  we  subscribe  to,  and  we  shall  be 
judged,  as  heretofore,  by  what  character  we 
possess.  Fads  give  rise  to  quacks  and  there 
are  many  to-day  who  prey  on  the  ignorant 
and  on  the  suffering — shallow  individualists, 
medicine  men,  vulgarians  with  a  show  of  occult 
learning  and  much  self-vaunting.  There  are 
quacks  in  all  professions  and  you  shall  know 
them  by  their  pretensions.  No  panacea  for 
mind  or  body  has  ever  been  discovered  but 
love  and  truth.  These  are  as  essential  to  us 
as  light  and  air.  We  have  not  recognised  this 
necessity  and  have  tried  with  but  poor  success 
to  do  with  substitutes.  Life  is  the  school 
where  we  are  to  clarify  our  minds  and  arrive  at 
the  perception  of  truth,  and  where  we  are  to 
purify  our  hearts  and  come  to  the  realisation 
of  love.  This  is  never  accomplished  by  any 
subterfuge,  but  with  rich  and  poor,  with  high 
and  low,  it  is  a  question  of  living  and  a  matter 
of  growth. 


266  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

One  species  of  modem  quackery  is  the  ap- 
plication of  mental  ''treatment"  to  business 
success,  and  nowhere  is  there  more  room  for 
common-sense  than  here.  The  road  to  true 
business  success  is  honesty,  intelligence, 
industry,  and  efficiency.  No  other  road  has 
been  discovered.  Some  knaves  get  rich  by 
stealing,  but  that  is  not  a  business  success  and 
their  failure  becomes  manifest  sooner  or  later. 
So-called  ** vibrations"  calling  success  out  of 
the  empty  air  are  mere  incantations  of  witch 
doctors  and  of  no  more  value.  Such  non- 
sense only  blinds  us  to  true  methods  and  true 
ideals. 

The  real  office  of  suggestion  in  this  connec- 
tion lies  in  helping  us  to  help  ourselves  by 
overcoming  those  defects  of  character  which 
inhibit  or  waste  our  power,  and  by  arousing 
us  to  thought-control  and  self -trust.  In  this 
way  we  may  be  legitimately  helped  to  business 
success.  If  poverty  is  the  result  of  incom- 
petence, it  is  only  to  be  overcome  by  grow- 
ing competent  and  efficient;  if  the  result  of 
indolence,  it  is  corrected  by  industry.  It  is 
sometimes  due  to  lack  of  self -trust,  lack  of 
concentration,  lack  of  force,  and  often  again 
to  lack  of  intelligence.  Whatever  overcomes 
these  deficiencies  will  help  us  to  success.     A 


Conclusion  267 

prolific  source  of  failure,  and  one  peculiarly 
amenable  to  suggestion,  is  a  wrong  mental  at- 
titude to  life  and  to  the  world — a  tendency  to 
push  away  the  good  which  would  naturally  flow 
to  us.  If  you  are  a  victim  of  this  tendency, 
if  you  are  in  the  habit  of  standing  in  your  own 
light,  of  denying  your  possibilities  and  affirm- 
ing your  weakness  rather  than  your  strength, 
you  have  it  in  your  power  to  reverse  the 
order  and  through  systematic  auto-suggestion 
to  establish  a  positive  and  normal  attitude  of 
mind  towards  life.  As  you  have  pulled  your- 
self down,  now  you  may  lift  yourself  up.  As 
you  help  yourself,  all  forces  conspire  to  help 
you.  The  quality  of  thought  sent  out  is 
echoed  back,  as  it  were,  love  for  love  and  hate 
for  hate.  Strength  gathers  to  itself  strength, 
as  capital  earns  interest. 

Let  go  of  the  past  wherever  it  is  inter- 
fering with  your  true  progress.  In  so  far 
as  suffering  is  refining,  uplifting,  spiritual- 
ising— in  so  far  as  it  is  a  factor  in  the  develop- 
ment of  character — it  is  good  and  serves  the 
main  purpose  of  life.  But  the  thought  that 
chains  us  to  the  past  and  interferes  with  our 
usefulness  in  the  present  is,  it  may  be,  but  a 
form  of  selfishness,  a  mill-stone  about  the  neck, 
and  the  sooner  we  disengage  ourselves  from 


268  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

it  the  better.  Veneration  for  the  past  and 
for  the  dead  ceases  to  be  justified  when  it  is 
at  the  expense  of  the  present  and  of  the  living. 
It  has  been  well  said  that  our  eyes  were 
placed  in  the  front  of  our  heads  that  we  might 
look  forward  and  not  backward. 

Remind  yourself  ever  and  anon  that  you 
see  life  through  your  own  mind,  as  through 
a  glass,  and  of  how  much  depends  on  the 
state  of  your  mind.  If  the  glass  be  out  of 
focus  the  world  must  look  awry.  If  the  glass 
be  clear,  life  will  look  brighter.  Thus,  in- 
stead of  complaining  of  life,  you  will  set 
to  work  to  cleanse  the  glass  and  put  it  in 
focus. 

It  must  be  admitted  that  this  is  not  so  much 
common-sense  as  the  uncommon  sense  which 
comes  only  to  the  awakening  mind.  But  it  is 
as  natural  to  that  state  as  was  the  self- 
hindering  and  complaining  attitude  to  the 
unawakened.  Our  growth  is  an  ascent  and 
from  each  new  vantage  we  get  a  new  and 
broader  point  of  view.  The  old  point  of 
view  seemed  true  from  the  position  wherein  it 
was  taken,  but  we  have  only  to  ascend  a  little 
way  to  discover  our  error.  And  in  this  ascent 
we  discern,  on  each  new  plane,  more  and  more 
that  is  truly  practical  as  we  develop  and  rely 


Conclusion  269 

more  upon  inner  forces  and  less  upon  external 
means.  In  time  we  come  naturally  to  live 
the  inner  life  and  to  place  our  dependence 
there;  for  once  we  have  reached  its  plane,  it 
seems  as  practical  and  as  matter-of-fact  as  did 
ever  the  life  of  the  senses  at  some  lower  stage 
of  evolution. 

A  word  to  those  who,  while  they  admit  the 
facts,  find  themselves  temporarily  unable  to 
apply  them;  who  realise  they  should  control 
their  minds  but  think  themselves  unable  to  do 
so :  Every  student  of  human  nature  must  have 
observed  that  mental  phases  are  common  and 
not  always  to  be  accounted  for.  If  you  find 
your  mind  indulging  in  kinks  of  this  sort, 
look  to  it  that  your  main  purpose  is  true — 
that  you  face  the  right  way — ^but  do  not  take 
yourself  too  seriously.  All  growth  is  uneven. 
If  all  the  causes  which  lead  to  a  present  con- 
dition could  be  seen,  we  would  understand. 
This  being  impossible,  we  must  always  take 
something  on  faith,  and  the  more  we  can  apply 
a  broad  view  of  life  and  of  mental  evolution 
to  our  particular  case,  the  better  for  us.  If 
you  do  not  appear  able  to  profitably  direct 
your  thought  to-day,  divert  it  in  some  other 
channel.  The  phase  will  pass;  to-morrow  the 
world  will  wear  a  different  face  and  soon  you 


270  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

will  be  in  possession  of  yourself  again.  Once 
you  are,  then  discipline  yourself  against  a 
recurrence  of  unfavourable  conditions. 

Do  not  overtrain  mentally.  It  is  possible 
to  overdo  anything — even  virtue.  A  sense  of 
humour  has  great  saving  qualities.  Normal 
growth  is  better  than  a  forced  one.  Above 
all,  do  not  waste  your  energy  in  combating 
darkness.  Rather  open  your  consciousness 
to  the  light.  A  tranquil  mind  will  receive 
the  truth,  as  a  calm  lake  reflects  the  heavens. 
Let  tranquillity  therefore  be  your  aim.  Truth 
is  not  of  man  but  of  God.  You  may  prepare 
the  soil,  but  it  is  God  alone  who  gives  the 
increase.  The  obstacles,  however,  are  in 
man  and  not  in  God.  To  free  ourselves  from 
these,  that  the  truth  may  enter  from  above 
and  do  its  work,  is  the  ideal  of  the  Philosophy 
of  Self-help.  Ignorance,  fear,  passion,  self- 
ishness, all  obstruct  the  sunlight  from  our 
mental  fields  and  all  can  be  removed  by  the 
salutary  method  of  suggesting  true  ideals 
until  new  habits  of  mind  and  new  neural 
paths  are  established.  You  are  here  to  find 
yourself.  Do  not  complain  and  talk  of 
leaving  the  world  because  you  have  been 
burned  by  the  purifying  fire,  for  that  is 
childish.      But    learn    the    lesson    of    your 


Conclusion  271 

experience  and  see  what  good  can  be  gotten 
from  it — for  often  our  angels  come  in  disguise. 
Let  nothing  pass  without  attempting  to  de- 
rive some  good  from  it. 

Do  not  mistake  anything  connected  with 
the  personal  self  as  final.  Only  God  and  the 
Soul  are  unchangeable.  All  else  is  flowing — 
passing  phenomena  and  no  more.  It  may 
seem  to  you  that  your  habit  or  your  disease 
is  fixed.  Not  so.  The  kaleidoscope  retains  a 
particular  form  only  so  long  as  the  tube  is 
held  in  position:  a  turn  of  the  wrist  and  it 
becomes  something  else.  So  your  habits  of 
thought  have  crystallised  in  your  body  and 
your  environment  and  all  seems  enduring  as 
a  mountain.  But  let  some  intimation  from 
the  Soul  come,  like  a  gleam  from  above,  upon 
the  murky  horizon  of  your  thought,  and  the 
world  shall  appear  to  you  in  a  new  light. 
Establish  a  new  point  of  view,  a  new  and 
better  way  of  thinking,  and  you  give  the 
kaleidoscope  you  call  yourself  another  turn 
and  a  new  and  more  beautiful  combination 
appears  in  place  of  that  old  self. 

Good  is  permanent  and  real;  truth  endures. 
But  error  has  only  that  power- we  give  it,  the 
rank  we  accord  it  in  consciousness.  Harmony 
is  real  and  self-existent;  inharmony  is  of  our 


272  Philosophy  of  Self-Help 

own  creation  and  dies  when  we  cease  to 
breathe  our  life  into  our  creation.  Our  false 
beliefs  objectify  themselves  in  the  phantoms 
we  call  disease  to  which  we  give  reality  in 
consciousness.  Hold  fast  to  love  and  truth; 
abide  in  the  Spirit — for  these  are  the  realities. 

It  will  be  evident  that  the  aim  of  this  book 
is  to  teach  harmony;  to  help  you  put  yourself 
in  tune,  as  if,  indeed,  you  were  an  instrument, 
some  of  whose  strings  were  in  accord  and 
others  not.  If  life  seems  like  a  discord,  it  is 
because  we  are  out  of  tune.  Harmony  itself 
is  never  disturbed,  but  a  discordant  instru- 
ment responds  imperfectly  to  it.  Auto-sug- 
gestion, as  here  presented,  is  merely  a  means 
of  tuning  the  instrument;  right-thinking  is 
being  in  tune.  Harmony  itself  is  of  God — 
and  of  the  Soul  which  is  God  in  us.  To  ex- 
press harmony  is  to  be  a  perfectly  attuned 
instrument — a  sound  mind  in  a  sound  body. 

"And  be  not  conformed  to  this  world: 
but  be  ye  transformed  by  the  renewing  of 
your  mind,  that  ye  may  prove  what  is  that 
good,  and  acceptable,  and  perfect,  will  of 
God.":  V 


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